F ollowing Jharkhand State Committee decision to hold Kisan Mazdoor Adhikar rallies at block level in the whole state on 20 October, rallies were held in nine out of twelve blocks of Giridih district. In all, 44,000 peasants and workers participated in these rallies. In Bagodar, a colourful rally of 18,000 with traditional drums and gongs, flags, banners and festoons was brought out and in the nearby Birni block it was 10,000. At Rajdhanwar, around 5,500 people joined the rally. Almost half of the participants were women.
The issues projected at the rallies were: seize gair mazrua land from feudal and rich peasants and distribute it among landless and poor peasants; hold camps in the villages for land settlements; bring land under the possession of parcha holders; pay the arrears to rural workers at minimum wages; resolve cases filed by forest officials against peasants under joint forest management committees; get rural poor registered in BPL list and provide red cards and ration to them under Antyoday scheme as well as houses under Indira Awas Yojna, implement welfare schemes like family pension to women.
During the preparation period to the rally, membership recruitment campaign was conducted among all kisan mazdoor families, village committees were formed and memorandum were prepared. Altogether 225 village committees took part in the rallies. In this process, village committees of Jhamkis have emerged as the centres of revolutionary movement at the grassroots.
The main speakers at the rallies were: Comrade Mahendra Singh in Bagodar, Comrade Rajkumar Yadav in Rajdhanwar, Comrade Ibnul Hasan Basroo in Jamua.