LAHORE: Farmers` organisations, political parties and civil society representatives have decided to resist, what they call the government`s move to displace peasants in the name of corporate farming.

Representatives of Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, Anjuman Mazareen Punjab, Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party and Haqooqe-Khalq Party told a press conference here on Monday, after a meeting, that corporate farming is being used as a pretext to snatch lands from peasants and small farmers.

They said thousands of farming families in several districts of Punjab are being displaced from their lands, which are being handed over to `corporate mafias`. They said notwithstanding the court orders acknowledging these lands as the common property of peasants, the government, ignoring the peasants` ownership rights, is attempting to hand over their lands to corporate mafias for 30 to 50 years.

But the peasants are resisting the move and refusing to vacate their lands despite the use of police force, particularly in Arifwala and Hasilpur, they said, adding the government is now issuing notices to the farmers for sharecropping.

They said the local patwaris and tehsildars are demanding payment of arrears worth billions from the farmers, while police are being used to forcibly obtain their thumb impressions on ownership documents.

Saying no to corporate farming, they demanded genuine and comprehensive agrarian reforms and equitable distribution of lands for agricultural progress. They suggested that state lands should be distributed among landless peasants, rural poor, women, youth, and small farmers.

They also opposed the six canals being carved out from the Indus to facilitate the `corporate farming mafia` in Cholistan and called for focusing on providing water to the existing agricultural lands and communities.

Those who attended the presser included PKRC Secretary General Farooq Tariq, AMP President Mehr Ghulam Abbas, Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party`s Dr Taimur Rahman and human rights lawyer Asad Jamal.

-Staff Reporter