[Reader-list] Sindh Harri Convention: Long March Announced for Amendments in Sindh Tenancy Act

[Zulfiqar Shah]

Sindh Harri Convention
 
Long March Announced for Amendments in Sindh Tenancy Act 
 
Thousands of peasants participated Sindh Harri Convention, organized by South Asia Partnership – Pakistan, Sindh Office on December 4 at Hyderabad. The participants of the event demanded the amendments in Sindh Tenancy Act and carrying out land reforms in the country. 
 
It was announced in the event that SAP-PK [Sindh Office] and other civil society and peasants’ organizations will jointly carry out a Long March from February 15 to February 28, 2009 from Hyderabad to Karachi and will stage a sit in at Sindh Assembly Building for the amendments in Sindh Tenancy Act. 
 
The speakers, discoursed about the peasants’ issues, included Karamat Ali, PILER, Irfan Mufti, SAP-PK, Zulfiqar Shah, SAP-PK Sindh, Rochiram, Ms. Farheen Mughul, MPA Sindh Assembly, Jami Chandio, CPCS, Mohammad Ali Shah, PFF, Punhal Saryo, SHPC, Hussain Bux Thebo, Ramzan Memon, BHS, Prof. Ejaz Qureshi, Ghaffar Malik, SDS, Ghulam Mustafa Chandio, SHT, Dr. Nazeer Memon and other. 
 
Following resolutions were passed in the event:
 
	1. Amendments should be made in Sindh Tenancy Act and it should be re-drafting according to current socio-economic situation of Sindh
 
	1. Land reforms should be implemented in its originality. The land ceiling should be fixed to 50 acres irrigated land and 100 acres non-irrigated land.
 
	1. All laws and regulations regarding land developed under colonial era should be abandoned and commercialization of land should not be promoted.
 
	1. Under Haq-e-Shifa, the agriculture land of about 8 acres should be allotted to the landless agriculture workers and peasants’ families.
 
	1. The agriculture land occupied by or allotted to military farms and government departments should be revoked and distributed among the landless peasants under the principle of Haq-e-Shifa.
 
	1. Land allotted through auctions, awarded or given in claims should be revoked and distributed among the landless peasants except for the land actually cultivated by the landholders themselves.
 
	1. The illegal occupation of the land distributed in land reforms should be abandoned and possession should be given to the allottees.
 
	1. Land record (of agriculture and non-agriculture lands) should be computerized and made public through internet.
 
	1. The International Financial Institution funded mega projects in the name of irrigation reforms should be stopped.
 
	1. Privatization in the irrigation and agriculture sectors should be stopped.
 
	1. Communities of Indus Delta, Taunsa and other mega project affectees should be rehabilitated.
 
	1. Agriculture policy should be developed with the consultation of agriculture scientists, peasants, agriculture workers and growers.
 
	1. Legislation should be made against the pollution of crops, on ground and underground land resources.
 
	1. Legislation should be done to stop utility of chemicals, artificial fertilizers and pesticides, laboratories and research institutions should be set up for promoting the natural fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides.
 
	1. State should be responsible to provide agriculture machinery and energy.
 
	1. Adult literacy and necessary trainings should be planned for peasants and agriculture workers.
 
	1. A quota for children of peasants and agriculture workers proportionate to their population should be managed for the institutions of technical or higher education. The educated boys and girls of peasants and workers should be given employment in the agriculture institutions.
 
	1. Health and education should be ensured for peasants and agriculture workers and the rural settlements.
 
	1. State should decide minimum wages for agriculture worker
 
	1. Corporate farming should not be initiated in Sindh where rural poverty is highly associated with the in-equal distribution of land and highest ration of sharecropping and land less tenants. 
 
	1. Allotment of forest land to the influential persons should be revoked and re-allotted to the peasants as per agro-forestry policy.
 
	1. The occupied surveyed or un-surveyed lands in Kacho, Kaacho, Kohistan, Kach, Bailpat, Thar, Thal and elsewhere, should be re-surveyed and distributed among the landless tenants and agricultural labor.
 
	1. Support price of crops in line with the international market prices, should be declared before planting and/or harvesting.  Sugarcane, rice and wheat crops of Sindh may not be discriminated in that process. 
 
	1. Role of middlemen in the crops sale and purchase should be abandoned.
 
	1. Agriculture Markets / Centers and industries be set up and the facility and training of processing and modern packing be provided.
 
	1. Sufficient number of go-downs and cold storage units should be developed so that crop produce could be stored and preserved.
 
	1. Legislation should be done for the peasants rights to develop trade unions, attains social justice and old age benefits.


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