“The SEZ Act must be set aside and an intensified protest against the proposed SEZ must be staged by the people,” said social activist and Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy.
Addressing the inaugural programme of the 17th All India Conference of Corporation Bank Officers’ Organisation (CBOO) on Sunday at TMA Pai Convention Centre, Ms Roy said that any policy affecting the lives of the people and sovereignty of the nation must be opposed. The information pertaining to any policy of such a concern must be kept out on public domain as no policy can be formed without public debate.
She said that land acquisition which is happening across the nation for various purposes target only the tribals and the poor farmers. If at all development is required then why only the farmers and the tribals have to pay the cost. Why not the elite classes living in the society?, she questioned.
She said that in Rajasthan a massive Jan Adhikar Yatra will commence protesting against the 66 lakh hectares land acquisition for the purposes of SEZ, cultivation of Jethropa and for social security.
“Voice of common sense is an integral part of democracy and without this democracy cannot survive.
Unfortunately in India this voice of common sense is being lost,” she said and added that people must link up and relate to each other and protest against the wrong.
“We are not voicing our opinion. We become a part of the silence by not protesting. Due to the long standing silence, we have already lost a huge part of our democratic space and it is time to break this silence. Places of dissent must come into existence so that people can fight for their rights by making themselves heard.”
She said that the people whom we send to Parliament must have their primary focus right which should necessarily be the progress of the people. She said that certain basic questions that these leaders must answer is for whom is the national policy being formed and while doing so should they not consider that ‘last person’ into account?
“If humanity is lost, then all sensitivity is lost. The 8 per cent growth that we are talking of is needed but do we only speak of that and forget the fact that the social indicators of India shows that it is much below the sub Saharan Africa,” she added.
All India Bank Officers’ Federation General Secretary Amar Pal said that the managements have been brushing aside the reasonable demands of the Bank employees for placement of personnel and promotion policy. He declared to solve the problems of second option on pension if provided, the bankers give in three days of strike.
“The irony in this country is that a person who enters Parliament for one day is entitled for pension, but bank employees who toil for 40 years are deprived,” he said. CBOO President T R Bhat presided over the programme. Other officer-bearers of the Organisation were present.
