Social activist Hazare agrees to give state three months after it promises to appoint inquiry commissions
Social activist Hazare agrees to give state three months after it promises to appoint inquiry commissions
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Anna Hazare may have deferred his hunger strike by three months, but other social activists in the state have decided to their continue agitation against the Lavasa project.
Hazare decided to postpone his hunger strike after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar promised to appoint inquiry commissions to look into irregularities in the Lavasa project, at a meeting in Nagpur.u00a0
"The Chief Minister agreed to appoint two separate commissions to investigate illegal allotment of 145 hectares of land belonging to the Krishna Valley Irrigation Project to developers of the Lavasa project," Hazare said. "He also said that the government is new and needed time to study the Lavasa issue. I am ready to wait for the next three months."
Other activists said the government was simply dilly-dallying, saying it was new and needed more time. "His (Hazare's) hunger strike and the agitation are two different issues and let us not mix them," said Suniti S R, national convener of National Alliance for People's Movement (NAPM).
Suniti said the local farmers and land labourers would keep up the agitation.
She said the discussion went off well and important issues in the Lavasa project had been raised by Hazare and Medha Patkar with the chief minister and his deputy. The meeting was also attended by Dr Vishvambhar Chaudhari, a noted environmentalist and social activist, and Dnyaneshwar Shedge, a farmer in Lavasa.
It was decided at the meeting that there would be no more construction at Lavasa as per the notice issued by Ministry of Environment and Forest and a three-judge committee would look into the allegations of violations.
The chief minister also said that 'false' cases against farmers would be taken back. They are landless as per the law and have been given land for farming purposes only. This ceiling land that was given to the landless had been handed over to Lavasa.
"We have demanded an objective inquiry into the entire Lavasa issue. There has been rampant violation of environmental norms and cases against the farmers were false," said Suniti. "Though the present situation is still uncertain, we are ready to give the government a chance to conduct an objective inquiry."
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Dr Vishvambhar Chaudhari, environmentalist and social activist, NAPM, said, "The chief minister appeared to be serious and I hope that he will keep his promise to expedite the Lavasa issue in the next 23 months," he said.
Dnyaneshwar Shedge, a farmer who had lost nine acres of his land to Lavasa, said he was not happy with the talks in Nagpur. "Lavasa is breaking laws and using muscle power against farmers. About 609 hectares belonging to 170 farmers were taken away by it. Also, it got the land from Krishna Valley Irrigation Project from the government illegally," he said. "Our agitation will continue till we get back our lands from Lavasa."
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