Ten days after landless poor from different parts of the country embarked on a protest march to Delhi, demanding urgent implementation of land reforms, the government staged a give-in and the march was called-off at Agra on Thursday. An agreement that the government will vary out some of the key demands of the protestors was signed by union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and Rajagopal PV, the founder and president of the Ekta Parishad, the body which had organised the march.

Ramesh assured the 50,000-strong crowd of protestors that the government was serious about implementing the reforms. “Keep putting pressure on the centre. But it is also necessary that the same pressure is put on the states and the chief ministers because land is a state subject,” Ramesh told the protestors, most of whom were landless agricultural labourers and tribals. 

The Ekta Parishad, on the behalf of the protestors, gave a six-month deadline to the government to implement the reform. If the government failed the deadline, then a similar march will be mounted, national coordinator of Ekta Parishad, Ramesh Sharma said.

Both parties agreed on a 10-point programme. On October 17, the union government and Ekta Parishad members will discuss in New Delhi the course of action to be taken to implement it.

Prior to the Agra accord, the minister and Ekta Parishad members had held discussions in New Delhi on October 8-9. The minister had agreed to go to Agra and inform the protestors of the demands that the government had agreed to meet.

The centre and the Ekta Parishad have reached an accord on the following ten demands:

1. The right to home estate: Guarantee 10 decimal of land for landless and shelter-less poor

2. National Land Reform Policy: When there is a national policy on a host of matters, why don’t we have a national land reform policy?

3. New agriculture land distribution law – Land to the landless poor for livelihood

4. Fast-track trial to dispose land-related cases

5. Effective implementation and monitoring institutions to provide access to land and livelihood resources to the poor, landless, homeless and marginalised communities

6. Implementation of the Panchayat (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act (PESA) to give tribals a say in the use of land and natural resources

7. Proper implementation of Forest Rights Act

8. A law to resolve forest and revenue boundary disputes

9. Protection of common property resources

10. A national database on land ownership to monitor property beyond the land ceiling limit