Thread 🌾 Plight of Sikh Farmers in Kutch, Gujarat !
After the Indo-Pak war of 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji ,then PM, allotted semi-arid land in Kutch to 550 farmers from other states to populate the border area and make it more secure. Among them were 390 Sikh farmers.
After the Indo-Pak war of 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji ,then PM, allotted semi-arid land in Kutch to 550 farmers from other states to populate the border area and make it more secure. Among them were 390 Sikh farmers.
These farmers made the land fertile—tube wells were installed, cotton started to grow and factories came up.
In 1973, the Congress-led state government issued a circular based on Vidarbha Region & Kutch Area Act, 1958—that only native Gujaratis could buy land in the state.
In 1973, the Congress-led state government issued a circular based on Vidarbha Region & Kutch Area Act, 1958—that only native Gujaratis could buy land in the state.
In Oct.2010 the collector of Kutch sent notices to farmers residing in the district citing the circular&informing them records of their land were being frozen. Long list of people with ‘Singh’&‘Kaur’ as their last name were termed as ‘non-natives’&lost rights on their own land.
In 2011farmers filed a case against the move in Gujarat High Court & eventually won the case. Instead of implementing the high court’s decision, the state government approached the Supreme Court.The case is still pending in the court & left Sikh farmers in a fix. Modi was CM.
After collector issued notices many Sikh farmers began leaving Kutch & going to Punjab .In 2013 Sikh farmers complained that local BJP leaders were threatening & physically attacking them. Most notable case was of Jaswinder Singh of Loria village of Kutch district.
Farmers met Modi regarding land policy in 2010.Most of the Sikhs of Gujarat had been voting BJP.They were hopeful that Modi would speak in their interest.But he showed his real face by making them landless & telling them'"I do not need your votes,if you have issue leave farming".
There were approx 20,000 Sikh votes that time in Kutch.Lachman Singh Brar, a farmers’ leader in Kutch, said,“On one hand Modi abolished Article 370 in Kashmir by saying that ‘now any citizen can buy land’,when will the section 370 imposed on Punjabi farmers of Kutch be abolished?
There is increased greed to acquire land in area for corporate&real estate purposes due to its industrial development &proximity to the port. When Modi was CM he gave a large part of land to huge capitalists like Adani-Ambani and now eyeing farmer's land. toi.in/s8BM-b
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