District Conference of BKF and BKS in Bangladesh

This is to inform you that on 7 June 2009 the joint District Conferences of Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF) and Bangladesh Kishani Sabha were held in Barisal City. 15 hundred delegates were present in the conferences who are mostly peasants, landless, agricultural and rural workers, both men and women. The participation of women was most significant. The meeting had two sessions---Inaugura l and Council. Besides, big procession was brought out in the city and paraded different streets of the city.

In the opening session the delegates and invited guests spoke on various issues in relation to agriculture, landless, rural problems, violence on women and government policy as regards agriculture, etc. The speakers also spoke on the global crisis and climate change as Bangladesh is the worst victim of it. They also asked the government to stand by the people who were hit by the recent cyclone Aila due to climate change in the south-western parts of Bangladesh. They also call upon all persons and institutions which are sympathetic to the victim. They mentioned that their organizations have done as far as possible with their limitations.

In the second session the council took place for the formation of the new full-fledged committee for the district level. A 15-member District Committee for BKF and the same for BKS was forged to work for the next two years according to the constitution of the organizations.

The Central President of Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Badrul Alam and Central Presdient of Bangladesh Kishani Sabha, Khurshida Akter were present in conference as guests.

Badrul Alam made them read oath at the end of the council. The elected committee sworn to continue the struggle unless the demands they put were asserted.

The new committee is assertive to take over an abandoned Charland(Island) emerged from the river bed near the city. The Charland is constituted of 3000 acres of land. A huge numbers of landless people should be rehabilitated there.

In Barisal the landless people had already occupied a Char named Rasulpur where the landless members of BKF and BKS are settled. During the Caretaker government they encountered two problems and dealt them very effectively. The District Authority send an eviction letter to the landless dwellers and the local influential tried to give the different name for Rasulpur Char in the voter list in order to deny the demands of the settlers for the said land. The organizations seriously took the matter and took action immediately in favor of the landless. The organization contacted a renowned law agency named BLAST that filed a writ petition in the high court for the cancellation of
the eviction order form the government's side. Because of that immediate legal action the district administration could not remove them from the land. And owning to the strong argument from the organization and street movement the election commission was compelled to take the name of Rasulpur that the landless people named.

By the way, there is a vested interest around this land in the district level. Despite the frequent demands of the landless people for permanent settlement the local administration is not doing so by being soft to the local influential who are claiming the land illegally. That is why there is regular issue of fight against these forces who are trying to evacuate the land through their tyranny. Last two years the landless people made more than 200 protests on the street in order to cope with various conspiracies against the
landless.

During the District Conference the local influential made fiasco around the venue of the conference. The conference was scheduled to be held in the hall room of Lawyers' Association in Barisal. The organizations rented the hall room long before. But unfortunately at the mid night just before the conference they telephoned the local leaders declaring the cancellation of the permission. It was a big surprise to the landless leaders and pushed them uncertainty with the fate of their conference. At the end the District Authority issued a
new venue immediately to hold the conference. They created this circumstance because some of them have their corrupt interest on the
Charland.

One day after the conference on 8 June all local press and some important daily newspaper wide published the news of the conference with clear denouncement of the motivated steps of the Lawyers' Association. Their anti-landless attitude has been exposed explicitly.

That is all for now

Badrul Alam
President
Bangladesh Krishok Federation