India News | U'khand: Several Organisations Hold Rally, Demand Repeal of 2018 Land Law

Pithoragarh (U'Khand), May 13 (PTI) Several social, political and cultural organisations held a rally in Uttarakhand's Almora district on Saturday demanding repeal of a land law enacted during the chief ministership of Trivendra Singh Rawat in 2018 which put no limits on industrialists buying land in the Himalayan state.

The organisations that hit the streets included Uttarakhand Parivartan Party, Salam Samiti, Bhumi Bachao Samiti, Uttarakhand Mahila Manch, Uttarakhand Chhatra Sangathan, Van Panchayat Sarpanch Sangthan, Folk Artists Association and Nainital Bachao Sangharsh Samiti. Their activists were holding placards that read "Bhu mafia bhagao Uttarakhand bachao".

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"Uttarakhand is the only Himalayan state where there is no limit on how much land an industrialist from outside can buy here to set up industry. All other Himalayan states have protected their land by keeping it for locals," Uttarakhand Parivartan Party president P C Tiwari said.

"We demand immediate repeal of the land law enacted by the Trivendra Singh Rawat government in 2018 and give Uttarakhand protection under provisions of Article 371 of the Indian Constitution," he said.

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The Trivendra Singh Rawat government had removed the restrictions on outsiders buying land in the state on the plea that it was necessary to attract investments.

"The successive governments of Uttarakhand have forced migration from the villages over the last 22 years of its existence by not only changing land laws in favour of land mafias from outside but also by snatching away from local people the rights of picking dried wood from forests by amending forest laws," said Rajendra Singh Rawat, president of Salam Samiti.

Land grabbing by outsiders at Danda Kanda, Naini Chitai, Jhaldungra and Phalsema are an evidence of how the land mafia are taking undue advantage of the land law enacted by the Trivendra Singh Rawat government in 2018, he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)