CPI(ML) Darbhanga district committee and AIARLA started an indefinite land rights satyagraha in front of the Darbhanga Collectorate from 20 October 2016 on the issues of giving possession over the lands to parcha holders (allottees), land for the landless, and legal land rights for people who have been settled on land for many years. Tens of thousands of parcha holders have not given possession over lands in Debna (Tardih), Godaipatti (Hanuman Nagar), Kaligaon (Singhwada), Eastern and Western blocks of Kushewarsthan, Biraul, Bahedi and other places in Darbhanga for years. Nothing has been done in this matter despite repeated requests to the administration who are responding with ifs and buts on the question of dakhal-dehani.
During the land satyagraha agitation thousands of rural poor raising slogans of “Roar of the Landless Poor, Will Settle for Nothing Less than Our Land Rights” protested at the Darbhanga District Collectorate. The protest started from Polo Maidan and marched past the Commissioner’s Office, Collectorate and Laheriyaserai Tower. The protest was led by CPI(ML) District Secretary Baidyanath Yadav, AIARLA District President Jangi Yadav, District Secretary Prof. Kalyan Bharti, State Vice President Laxmi Paswan, ML State committee member Abhishek Kumar and others. Addressing the meeting at Polo Maidan presided over by Ashok Paswan the speakers said that the government and administration are playing paper games on the issue of land for the poor and landless. They are even conspiring to displace those poor who are already settled on some land and the administration has become a puppet in the hands of land thieves.
A Party delegation had talks with the DM on a 11 point charter of demands. The DM agreed to the demand of constituting a committee with political and social activists as members on the issue of dakhal-dehani. The Party also demanded the following: the conspiracy to displace the mahadalits settled in Kataiya Musahari of Biraul block should be stopped; people settled on canals and dams should not be displaced without alternative arrangements being made first; and positive action should be taken on the thousands of applications given by the landless in various zones. The Party gave the district administration a month’s time and said that if concrete action is not taken a “ghera dalo, dera dalo” agitation will be started on 21 November.
