People's Democracy

THE plenum of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Workers Union, held at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad on May 30-31, decided to fight against the anti-agricultural workers approach of the Chandrababu Naidu government and conduct struggles for occupation of surplus and waste lands and for implementation of minimum wages.

300 delegates from across the state participated in the plenum which was chaired by the president of All India Agricultural Workers Union, P Ramayya, who is also the president of its AP unit. Inaugurating the plenum, the general secretary of the union, A Vijayaraghavan, asked agricultural workers to prepare for a country-wide agitation to fight against the anti-agricultural policies of the central and state governments. He made it clear that this was the only way for the agricultural workers to come out of the present-day crisis. He referred to the increasing number of suicides by farmers, lack of remunerative prices, increasing debt burden of the country, and said that these were as a result of the policies followed by the central government. After the WTO agreement, though there was scope for giving subsidies to the tune of Rs.65,000 crores to the farmers in the country, the central government was reluctant to provide the same. He demanded restoration of subsidies to the farmers and further widening of the public distribution system to ensure food security to the people.

P Ramayya underlined the need for united struggles on the issues of agricultural workers by bringing together like-minded forces in the state. He found fault with the ruling TDP for making no mention whatsoever of the agricultural workers and dalits in the 47 resolutions passed by its recently held state-level conference, Mahanadu.

B Venkat, general secretary of the union, gave an account of the agitational programmes taken up after the state conference of the union held in June, 2001 at Ongole, the problems confronting the agricultural workers and the tasks ahead.

The plenum condoled the death of Comrades M Hanumantha Rao, M Udayam, Ramnath Mahato, G Parvathalu, Sambamurthy and others.

B V Raghavulu, secretary of the A P state committee of the CPI(M) delivered valedictory address.

The plenum resolved to take up continuous agitational programme from June to August, demanding implementation of the G O on minimum wages, distribution of land to the agricultural workers, house sites to all the needy poor, stoppage of using machines in agriculture and increasing mandays. The plenum chalked out a programme to wage militant struggles in around 8000 villages in 700 mandals during these three months. During the current phase of Janmabhoomi, it was decided to demand the officers and ministers at every gram sabha (village meeting) in all the mandals to read out the G O on minimum wages, announce details of lands distributed - both surplus and waste lands - to the poor.

The plenum decided to conduct workshops in all the districts and submit memoranda of demands to officers from June 15 to 25. From July 1 to 20 conferences from village level to district level and picketings in front of the district collectorates would be conducted, besides conducting survey on availability of waste lands. If the government does not respond to these agitational programmes, then the agricultural workers will go on strike from the end of July onwards for implementation of minimum wages, occupy land and sow seeds, the plenum decided.

The Chandrababu Naidu government had set in motion a dangerous trend of dividing the farmers and agricultural workers. There is no mention about agricultural workers in the strategy and policy papers of the TDP government, either in its Vision 2020 document or in the resolutions passed by the party’s Mahanadu. The plenum condemned the state government for ignoring the nearly 1.5 crore agricultural workers in the state.

While carrying on its characteristic publicity on various programmes for poverty alleviation, the TDP government, instead of increasing mandays for agricultural workers, is encouraging mechanisation of agriculture. The state cabinet has decided to give a subsidy of Rs.27 crores on agricultural machines. It has pressurised the banks to increase loans for agricultural machines and in the credit plan for 2002-03, the state level bankers committee has decided to give loans to the tune of Rs.550 crores against Rs.180 crores given during the last financial year for agricultural machines. In the state, paddy is cultivated in about one crore acres. On an average 50 mandays are created per acre and about 50 crore mandays are created under paddy alone. Sugarcane and cotton are the next important crops for creating mandays. The plenum condemned the government’s approach in encouraging indiscriminate mechanisation of agriculture and leaving the agricultural workers high and dry without work. The plenum demanded the government to withdraw its decisions immediately and ban use of machines for works which can be carried out by agricultural workers.

The plenum decided that, if the government does not ban use of machines for agricultural works, the agricultural workers should resort to direct action and obstruct their usage.

Though the government issued a G O No. 48 dated 14-10-2000 revising minimum wages, ranging from Rs.52 to Rs.65, for agricultural workers, no attempt has been made to implement the same. Nor is there any special machinery to implement the same. The agricultural workers are not getting more than Rs.30 per day. As a result of the utter callousness of the government to implement minimum wages, 1.5 crore agricultural workers in the state, who constitute the highest percentage of the population than in any other state in the country, have been losing a sum of Rs.4000 crore to Rs.4500 crore per annum. There is no legislation to protect the rights of sharecroppers.

The state government has given a go-by to land reforms. According to official data, about 60 lakh acres of waste lands are available in the state. More than 10 lakh acres of surplus land is available. Out of 3.75 crore acres of arable land in the state, an extent of about 2.75 crore acres is being cultivated. There is no response from the government on the balance 1 crore acres. The government is trying to hand over these waste lands to private corporate houses. No efforts are being made by the government for early disposal of cases relating to about 2 lakh acres of surplus land pending in the courts. The BJP, which dare not criticise the TDP government for its failure to implement land reforms, is enacting a big drama with its slogan of "land to the one who can plough" with a view to hoodwinking the poor. In the Telangana area about 2.5 lakh acres of land is under the possession of landlords, most of which is government’s waste land and surplus land held under benami names. For the last one decade they left the villages and are staying in cities. These landlords mainly belong to the BJP and the TDP. In the name of "land to the one who can plough", it is the conspiracy of the BJP to make the government purchase these waste lands of landlords and pay them crores of rupees on the one hand, and to give pattas to the landlords on the government lands illegally occupied by them, thereby legalising the encroachments, on the other. It is a drama enacted by the BJP and the TDP together to deprive the poor of the lands. In the state, the SCs, STs and other weaker sections are asking for land and if the government does not oblige, they are in a mood to occupy the lands and cultivate them. With a view to watering down the rising consciousness of these downtrodden sections of people and for benefiting the landlords, the BJP has come out with its new slogan.

The state government has been implementing the food for work programme, with about 21 lakh tonnes of rice given by the centre. Official statistics show that works valued at Rs.3000 crores are being implemented. However, the real beneficiaries are the TDP workers and contractors, with the foodgrains intended for these works getting diverted. At more than a hundred places when the foodgrains intended for food for work programme were being diverted to be resold to the Food Corporation of India, the culprits were caught red-handed. The Agricultural Workers Union demanded a judicial inquiry into the way the food for work programme was implemented.

The plenum demanded the government to stop brutal attacks of the police on tribals in the agency areas of West Godavari district and hand over lands to the tribals. It also demanded the government to stop digging of tanks in lands of tank-beds which the poor have been cultivating and not to deprive them of their livelihood. The plenum also decided to take up agitational programmes on the economic issues of agricultural workers, implementation of schemes of the government, social problems like caste discrimination and lack of due honour and importance to the representatives of the people elected from the agricultural workers.