DW BUREAU / Shimla

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Thursday met a delegation of Himachal Pradesh Kisan Sabha who are protesting against the alleged illegal eviction of farmers from their land claiming they are in violation of the law.

Sukhu assured them that his government would not displace them and try to resolve their grievances.

On behalf of the Kisan Sabha, former MLA Rakesh Singha submitted a memorandum to the chief minister at Choura Maidan here.

The meeting happened after hundreds of farmers and horticulturists from across the state staged a protest in Shimla earlier on Thursday over various demands, which included providing five bighas regularised land to poor landless farmers.

Sukhu said ensuring the welfare of farmers and orchardists was the government's priority.

Highlighting some initiatives by the government, he said, "The provision of Agriculture Loan Interest Subvention Scheme has been made in the budget, under which the land of the farmers will be saved from being auctioned."

Under this scheme, the state government will bring a one-time settlement policy through banks to repay agricultural loans of Rs 3 lakh, the CM said.

The state government will pay 50 per cent of the interest on the principal amount and Rs 50 crore will be spent on the scheme," he added.

Sukhu said he was well aware of farmers' problems and every effort would be made to solve their grievances.

Earlier, farmers took out a march from the Panchayat Bhawan towards the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The march concluded at the Choura Maidan near the assembly where the CM came to meet them.

Addressing the rally, Singha said all evictions of farmers are being carried out in violation of the law.

"Over the past 10 years, thousands of eviction orders had been issued by the DFO court under the Public Premises Act and these were upheld by the Divisional Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh and the high court.

"However, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has now either annulled these orders or sent them back to the Himachal Pradesh High Court for review. Despite this, evictions are still going on and residential houses are being sealed across various parts of the state without following the legally prescribed procedure or proper demarcation.

Even houses built on land approved under the Nautor policy are not being spared, he added. 'Nautor' land refers to unutilised land outside towns, but not in protected forests, which authorities can decide to allow people to use.

(editor@dailyworld.in)