Kundapur: Shelterless People Fight for their Rights, Demand Justice
Silvester D’Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (VM)
Kundapur, Nov 5: The landless and shelterless people, under the aegis of Karnataka unit of All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), Kundapur taluk and Mane Niveshana Rahitara Horata Samiti staged a massive protest here on Monday November 5 against the taluk panchayat demanding title deeds and legalization of their encroached government land, and to form pro people Land Acquisition Act.
Addressing the gathering, AIAWU Karnataka unit president Nithyananda Swami said that health, food, shelter, educational rights should be given to make the human rights mentioned in the Constitution meaningful. "This is the responsibility of the government. We are not here to beg for our rights. Our rights should be given by the government. We will not rest until we get justice," he said.
"These days land belonging to government is acquired by rich people instead of being given to the poor. Huge acres of land in the taluk have been acquired for industrial purposes. This should be stopped and land should be allotted for the poor," he added.
Nithyananda said that around 50,000 people in the taluk have come forward to protest for their rights. "The protest is being carried out across the state. The number of shelterless people is on the rise. Without proper shelter, the people are residing in empty government lands and forest areas," he said.
He demanded that the government allot at least 10 cents of land to shelterless people before they lose their patience and take some wrong action.
Rajeev Padukone, president of AIAWU, Kundapur taluk said that the protest will continue until the government allots land.
K Shankar, CITU district president, H Narasimha, Venkatesh Koni, AIAWU secretary, U Das Bhandary, Mahabala, Subramanya Achar, DYFI taluk president, Raja, joint secretary, Srikanth, Dogu Suvarna, district president of AIAWU, Nagaratna, Shashikala among others were present.