Muzaffarpur, Jan. 24: Veteran Gandhian Babu Rao Chandawar today launched a crusade against irregularities in land reforms and anomalies in the distribution of land among the poor under the Bhoodan movement.

Chandawar (84), who has worked with Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and Jai Prakash Narayan, started his Lok Samvad Yatra from Motihari on January 18 and has reached Muzaffarpur to gather support from the rural folk. He had the privilege of working with Jai Prakash Narayan in Bihar during the 1974 movement, is urging the rural populace, particularly poor peasants, to fight the indifferent attitude of the state government towards their issues.

“The government, for decades, has miserably failed to ensure that land remains under the possession of the poor. This has continued since decades,” he told The Telegraph here today.

He said under the Bhoodan movement, the poor have been given land but the state government could not do anything concrete to ensure that they could hold the possession of the land.

Apart from the failure to rectify land reforms, the state government has also been largely unsuccessful in controlling corruption, the octogenarian Gandhian added.

Chandawar said his campaign was aimed at creating awareness among the masses by touring all parts of the state. Chandawar said he knew the pulse of the people in the state very well and added the poor people have been at the receiving end.

“Conversion of farmers into labourers and the skyrocketing of prices are undoubtedly calling for a peoples’ revolution,” he said.