MIJARC Kerala, an international movement of Catholic agricultural and rural youth, on Sunday urged the government not to implement the recommendations of Madhav Gadgil and Kasthurirangan commissions as it would affect the agriculture sector and also the people living in the high ranges.
MIJARC said that there was a need to review the commission’s recommendations considering the high population density, land scarcity and the peculiar land utilisation pattern of Kerala.
Any recommendation that could potentially affect the population adversely must not be implemented. The government had promised that title deeds will be distributed to all settler farmers, but the government drastically failed to fulfil the promise.
In this context, if the commission’s report is implemented, the farmers will be evicted from the land under their possession and the land will be designated as government land, MIJARC pointed out.
In all, the 123 villages which are being declared as ecologically fragile lands (EFL) include densely populated areas and farm land. It is important to adopt a farmer- friendly approach on the issue, it said.