The first Uttarakhand State Conference of All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM) was held on 9-10 March at Almora. The conference venue was named after Comrade Ram Naresh Ram and the venue gate was named after Comrade Chandra Singh Garhwali, the hero of the Peshawar rebellion. About 85 delegates participated in the Conference.
Comrade Raja Ram Singh, General Secretary of AIKM, addressing the conference as the main speaker said that small-scale and marginal farmers are being constantly thrown out of agriculture by making it unrewarding. Governments are acquiring agricultural lands for corporate SEZs, hydropower projects etc by evicting the poor from their land.
Uttarakhand's Party incharge Comrade Raja Bahuguna inaugurated the Conference and stressed on creating a new wave of peasant struggles. Comrade Purushottam Sharma presented the discussion paper and noted that anti-farmer policies of successive governments in the State has resulted in shrinkage of agriculture sector spending to less than 10 %. The paper was passed unanimously after enthusiastic debate. The summing up remarks of the two-day Conference was presented by CPI(ML) CC member Comrade Rajendra Pratholi.
The Conference resolved to spread the AIKM to all 13 districts of Uttarakhand in next two years and raise the membership to fifty thousand from the present ten thousand. The Conference also elected 27 member State Council and 7 member State Executive. Comrades Purushottam Sharma and Jagat Martoliya were elected State President and Secretary of AIKM respectively. Comrades Indresh Maikhuri and Ghulam Nabi were elected Vice Presidents. Other Executive members are comrades Anand Singh Negi, Man Singh Pal and Surendra Brajwal.
