MANGALORE August 12: Any policy which affects a large number of people, is unacceptable to them and is detrimental to the sovereignty of the nation should not be pursued, Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy has said.

The Special Economic Zone Act is one such policy which has to be set aside. Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan, Rajasthan would take this legislation to the people to elicit their opinion, she said.

Interacting with media persons here on Sunday, Ms. Roy said that the MKSS had organised Jan Adhikar Yatra from four places in Rajasthan – Ajmer, Tonk, Alwar and Seekar — which would culminate in Jaipur on August 21. The yatras were already underway.

The MKSS would strive to create public opinion about the SEZ policies of both the Central and Rajasthan governments through this campaign.

A series of public hearings would be conducted at the six-day ‘Jan Manch,’ which would get underway at Jaipur on August 21. The important issues that would feature at this public forum were a debate on the SEZ policies, a move by Rajasthan Government to demarcate 66-lakh hectares of cultivable public waste land for Jatropha cultivation and the move to amend the act permitting Dalits to sell the land allocated to them. Referring to the move to demarcate land for Jatropha cultivation, Ms. Roy said it had failed in many parts of the world.

This was nothing but a move to help realtors buy this land for a song. The Chief Secretary, divisional commissioners and district magistrates were empowered to acquire lands within the limits specified and allot them to private companies for development, she added.

Bid to thrust policies on people should be resisted

It is imperative for people and organisations to join hands to create a united voice on various issues of social concern, Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy has said.

This is also necessary for survival of democracy and protection of individual rights.

Inaugurating the 17th All-India conference of Corporation Bank Officers’ Organisation (CBOO) here on Sunday, Ms. Roy, a former IAS officer, said in India people, unfortunately, tended to lose touch with common sense. Our democratic set-up was linked to the fortunes of its political leadership, which was bogged down by idol worship. A person was given more credit than what was due to them and there was no collective participation in decision making.

The political leadership in the country owed its allegiance to the party agenda and not to the people who voted for them.

The result was that the socio, economic or political decisions taken by lawmakers did not benefit the masses. Referring to the increasing attempts to straightjacket society based on a particular identity rather than on its pluralistic character, Ms. Roy said such attempts to categorise society was not good.

Society as a whole should stand up as one and oppose any attempts to thrust political, social or economic policies on the people, she said.

GDP growth

Dwelling on the development paradoxes, which abound in India, Ms. Roy said the nation which on the one hand boasts of eight per cent GDP growth also fared worse than its neighbours and many sub-Saharan African nations in vital social indices.

T.R. Bhat, president of CBOO, in his presidential remarks concurred with the observations of Ms. Roy and said that although the country witnessed many changes in the last three years on socio-economic and political fronts, there was little by way of tangible benefits for the labour class.

Mr. Bhat also lauded his officer colleagues for bringing around a transformation in the fortunes of the bank despite facing numerous personal and professional challenges both from within and outside.

Released

Amar Pal, general secretary, AIBOC, released the silver jubilee commemorative issue of ‘Officers’ Voice’ on the occasion. The organisers felicitated S.N. Nayak, U. Sripathi, K. Devadas Pai, P. Suresh Shenoy and P. Mahesh on the occasion.

S.A. Hiremath, chairman, reception committee, welcomed the gathering.

K. Kamalakar Nayak, secretary, proposed a vote of thanks.

The Hindu
Photographs: Our Correspondent