Nawanshahr, December 31:- The National Committee of the Federation of Indian Trade Unions (IFTU) strongly condemns the arrest of Mukesh Malaud, President of the Land Acquisition Struggle Committee, by the Punjab Government on Tuesday. A press release issued by IFTU Central Committee General Secretary T Srinivas said that Mukesh Malaud was arrested by the Punjab Police at Nizamuddin Station, Delhi, while returning from a public meeting in Nagpur.
Without obtaining a transit remand from the Delhi courts, the Punjab Government illegally pushed him into a vehicle and took him out of the city.
Sathi Malaud has been arrested by the Sangrur police on the basis of cases registered during the fierce struggles fought by Dalits under the banner of the Land Acquisition Struggle Committee since 2014. These struggles were fought to ensure the legal rights of Dalits to 1/3rd of the panchayat land as per the Punjab law.
During these struggles, successive governments of Punjab stood by the landlords, who illegally occupied this land through dramatic appearances. One of the cases registered against Malaud relates to the 2014 Balad Kalan village struggle, in which an 80-year-old woman was martyred during the attack by landlords, goons and police to crush the efforts of Dalits to enforce their legal rights.
The National Committee of Iftu strongly condemns the anti-Dalit and anti-rural labourer-agricultural labourer role of the current Punjab government.
Iftu leaders said that when the Aam Aadmi Party was not in power in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party leaders had supported the sit-ins of the Land Acquisition Struggle Committee and the current state Finance Minister himself had participated in these sit-ins. But today the same government has come down heavily on the illegal arrest of the president of the Land Acquisition Struggle Committee.
This arrest was made on the same day when a drama of discussion was staged in the Vidhan Sabha against the Ji Ram Ji Bill. This makes it clear that the government's concern for Dalits and farm labourers is just crocodile tears.
The National Committee of Iftu has demanded the immediate release of comrade Mukesh Malaud, registration of cases of kidnapping and illegal arrest against the personnel of the Special Security Branch of the Punjab Police, immediate cancellation of all false cases, giving 1/3rd of the panchayat land to Dalits for cultivation, implementation of the Land Ceiling Act and confiscation of additional land of seventeen and a half acres and distribution among Dalits and landless farmers.
The National Committee of Iftu has appealed to all state units to actively participate in the protests against the illegal arrest of comrade Mukesh Malaud and for his release.