Mangaluru, (The Hindu): Yogendra Yadav, well-known psephologist and central coordination committee member of Swaraj Abhiyan, has questioned the State government’s move to allot land for expansion of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).

He told presspersons here on Saturday that it was obnoxious to hear that the government was setting aside farm land for the expansion of MRPL. The government had issued a notification cancelling the allotment of land for the second phase of the Mangalore Special Economic Zone following agitations. The government was now trying to allot nearly 2,000 acres of land to MRPL.

Questioning the need for allotting such a large extent of land, Mr. Yadav said that the government was building land banks and favour corporate houses. The Swaraj Abhiyan’s Jai Kisan Andolan would join organisations in their fight against allocation of land to MRPL.

Mr. Yadav said he and other activists of the Jai Kisan Andolan had extensively toured areas in Karnataka and 11 other drought-affected States since October 2015. In December 2015, the andolan activists filed a petition in the Supreme Court for better implementation of schemes under the Mahahtma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the guidelines mentioned in the drought management manual.

“We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will uphold our petition in February first week,” he said.

Mr. Yadav said that non-payment of dues to farmers by sugarcane mills was a problem across the country. Sugar mill owners, most of who were politicians, owe nearly Rs. 37,000 crore to farmers. But it was strange that the Union government was giving them a loan of Rs. 6,000 crore, he added.

Photo credit: The Hindu