HYDERABAD, Oct 4: Leftist leaders, representative of peasants bodies and non-governmental organisations demanded on Thursday that the government should take back the land allotted to or occupied by the state organisations and distribute it among poor farm labourers including women.

They said at a provincial advisory conference of peasants’ bodies at the press club, which was attended by over 18 organisations that the government should take back all the lands given in reward or auctioned and take steps to abolish the new feudal system in the garb of corporate farming, they stressed citing state lands in Khanewal, Okara and other places which they claimed had been occupied by army personnel.

The Green Rural Development Organisation (GRDO) hosted the conference.

The speakers including leftist and hari leaders Jam Saqi, Rochi Ram, Azhar Jatoi, Ghulam Mustafa Baloch, Dr Haider, Dr Christopher John and Ms Aqeela Naz from Punjab said that in the guidance of Shah Inayat Shaheed, Mai Bakhtawar, Comrade Haider Bux Jatoi and workers’ movement across the world they would strive for the rights of the tillers of the land and urged repeal of the Colonisation Act 1912.

They stressed that without abolition of the retrogressive feudal system, the tillers of the land could not achieve their rights. Every citizen had the right to have food, clothes, shelter, health cover, clean drinking water, education and other basic facilities.

The conference issued a declaration demanding strict implementation of the Agricultural Reforms Act 1977 in letter and spirit and withdrawal of all the exemptions in the act.

The conference demanded that the government should stop privatisation of state lands including Thari cattle farm, take back forest lands from influential landlords and conduct a survey of Katcho, Kachho, Kohistan, Kachh, Thar and Thal areas.

The leaders urged the government to frame a law banning the sale of injurious chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers and waive all the loans the peasants owed to landlords in order to help eliminate bonded labour.

They called upon the government to allot lands to the liberated peasants have their NICs prepared on priority basis and register their names in voters lists.

They urged the government to stop sale of water to influential landlords and make sure they did not cultivate more than 33 per cent of their lands to guarantee supply of water to tail-end growers.

They demanded that the farmers should be given subsidy on seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, agricultural machinery, diesel and electricity used in operating tube-wells and announce support price for all the crops.

The government should direct the sugar mills to start crushing season and make payment to cane growers strictly in accordance with its notification, they said.

They urged the government to abolish contract system for catching fish in all the sweet waters resources and replace it with licence system exclusively for the fishermen.

They advised the government to declare all the areas as calamity-hit which had been under mealy bug attack. All the villages in the rural and urban areas should be regularised, proper arrangements for health and education and clean drinking water should be made in the villages and minimum wages should be announced for the farm workers, they said.

The conference demanded that the tenancy tribunals and hari courts should be made subordinate to the judiciary and set up on the pattern of labour courts where peasants themselves or their representatives should be allowed to plead their cases.

Dr Christopher John and Ms Aqeela Naz announced that a National Hari Convention would be held in Khanewal on Nov 17 and 18. Representatives from PILER, GRDO, Bhandar Hari Sangat, Sindh Hari Committee, Roshan Khayal Abadgar Society, Sindh Hari Porhiyat Council, HRCP, NRSP and Indus Development Society attended the conference.

ADMISSION CENTRES: The University of Sindh on Thursday set up four more counters at its administration building to collect admission forms from candidates applying for admission to the university for the new session.