Anna Hazare to launch Country-wide “Jail-bharo” Agitation

Anna Hazare has announced a three-month long intensive campaign starting in April in order to launch a countrywide “jail-bharo” agitation of peasants to stop the government from going ahead with acquisition of farmers’ land.

Hazare, who was speaking at the fourth convention of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) at Diroi-Rangoli of Sivasagar district in upper Assam, said he would organize as many as 40 massive rallies in ten states across the country in the next three months to build up a strong resistance to the BJP-led government’s land acquisition policy.”

“Six months have passed since the BJP came to power. But where is the Achhe Din? The farmers have not seen any Achhe Din, nor have other common citizens. Achhe Din has come only for the capitalists,” Anna Hazare said.

The noted social activist also said that while the Land Acquisition Act enacted by the previous Congress-led government in 2013 had a provision of taking consent of 80 per cent of farmers for acquisitioning land for private companies, the present BJP-led government had done away with this clause in the new Land Bill. “We cannot allow this to happen,” he said.

Anna Hazare also pointed out that the country’s farmland had not been mapped and classified even after 68 years of Independence. “One of the demands of the ‘jail-bharo’ movement will be classification of farm land into six categories and to ensure that the best four categories of farm land are not transferred for industrial use.