Adani’s Hazira rail project may hit ‘land’ hurdle

Based on the survey,the company approached the respective gram panchayats a few days ago and sought the names of villagers who would like to sell their farmland for the rail route.

At today’s meeting,held under the banner of Surat district Khedut Samaj,a majority of the farmers opposed the proposal. Following this,they decided to form a five-member action committee,which will have sarpanchs and deputy sarpanchs as members.

The farmers decided that the committee would convince fellow villagers not to sell their lands to the industrial group even if the latter lure them with jobs and other things.

Khedut Samaj general secretary Jayesh Patel said: “We don’t understand why the multinational companies and the government are eying on the land of farmers of Olpad and Choryasi. We have decided that we will not hand over our land to the government or any company at any cost. Farming is the only source of livelihood of the people of Olpad.”

He added,“We have instructed the action committee members not to allow any Adani group official to enter the villages for talks with the farmers. We will again meet on Thursday to discuss our future course of action.”