Agriculture n horticulture land in Uttarakhand. How appropriate is it to put them on sale? Seminar at PCI on 16th February, 2019

There have been tremendous dusenchantment and resentment amongst the right minded, educated n intellectual community of Uttarakhand about the recent amendment done by the present political dispensation allowing open sale of horticulture and agriculture lands for everyone including outsiders, obviously the big business houses and land mafia and sharks to purchase as much of lands abolishing the earlier maximum limit/ ceiling of 12.5 acres.

The Uttarakhand government has recently given the sanction to the Uttar Pradesh zamindari abolition and land reforms act, (1950 integration and uprantrn amendment order 2001 ordinance 2018). Under the new amendment the clauses 154(4) n (3) K of the act an infinite quantity of agriculture and horticulture land could be purchased by anyone for opening big industries and other forms of businesses on vast scale in Uttarakhand thus adversely impacting its demography, environment, ecology, peace, law n order situation, cultural heritage and serene beauty.

According to this new tourism policy designed to benefit the big business houses, industrialists, builders, real estate agents n corporates, the big money minting capitalists will establish big hotels, resorts, commercial institutions, private expensive hospitals, bars, restaurants, entertainment parks, eco lounges, parking areas, commercial convention centres, commercial Yoga Kendras, so called eco parks, marriage banquets, adventure tourism, branded spa centres, high profile, Ayurvedic chikitsa centres, rope ways, elevator projects etc etc by getting the status of Industry inside the state and thus purchase large tracts of land in the interior of Uttarakhand.

This arbitrary practice seems to be entirely against the sentiments and wishes of the people of Uttarakhand as well as a direct threat to its environment, ecology n demography of the 19 year old hill state.

In order to express the collective and unified protest against this anti people n anti eco friendly policies of the incumbent government of Uttarakhand n its policy makers several social and journalists’ organisations are organising a seminar cum meeting at Press club of India, New Delhi on 16th February, 2018 at 2.30 PM to be addressed by several prominent journalists and social activists who’d been relentlessly fighting n struggling on the issues of Jal, Jungle aur Jameen of Uttarakhand n outside for several decades.

The title of the seminar is Land Reforms in Uttarakhand. How aporopriate is to put the horticultural and agricultural land of Uttarakhand on sale? The seminar is being organised by Uttarakhand Patrakar Parishad in association with Uttarakhand Journalists Forum, Uttarakhand Chintan, Green Forum India, Rashtriya Uttarakhand Sabha, Think Democracy and Friends of Himalayas. The seminar is being organised across party n ideological lines and whoever interested to join the event is cordially invited.