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Journalism of Courage
From stone pelting officials conducting a drone survey in May to 94 percent of land acquisition consent forms being received, the situation regarding the land acquisition for the Purandar Airport in Pune has changed drastically in just four months. The land survey began in three villages with negligible police presence on Friday.
The decision to reduce the acquisition area from 7,000 acres to 3,000 acres in August, the introduction of MIDC’s 2019 policy of providing 10 per cent developed land in the Aerocity near the airport, the fear of missing out on benefits along with a sense of resignation, seem to be the reasons for this change.
District Collector Jitendra Dudi told The Indian Express, “I started talking to people in May. I have held over 100 hours of meetings. Their basic fear was that even if they get a huge amount of money, they will get completely displaced from the area. And that they will not get any benefit from the Airport. All their money will be spent in purchasing the new land in Purandar considering rates are going to rise. The second fear was that the government would give them less money. The third reason was that our houses will go, where will we stay?”
His solution was to implement a simple policy, “After understanding their issues I wanted to come up with a solution where the people will not get displaced, and while doing that they will be the first beneficiary of the project. I did that by simply ensuring that the 2019 MIDC policy comes into effect. This says that you will get 10 per cent of your acquired land back as developed land in the MIDC zone, which is the Aerocity in this case. But this will only happen if you give voluntary consent.”
For small farmers with land under 2.5 acres, Dudi said that they will be provided land at adjoining plots so that they have the option to come together under MIDC rules and form a company. “We will establish a food processing company and all small scale farmers will be shareholders,” he said.
Dattatray Zhurange’s family owns 2.5 acres in Munjawadi village. Like many other farmers, he says that he has given the consent for the ‘land survey but not for the land acquisition’. He explained why the protest against the project has reduced, “After the government reduced the land acquisition from 7000 acres to 3000 acres people got divided, as the ones whose land was not being acquired had nothing to fight for. Secondly, the government said that if we do not give voluntary consent, then the benefits of 10 per cent developed land will not be given. This converted many people. Thirdly, if a big farmer gives his consent, the farmers around him feel that ‘He has signed it because he knows something. We should not miss out on the benefits he will get.’”
Speaking about his own land Zhurange said, “We never wanted the project. Our land and house is just adjacent to the road. Why would we need to give our land? We live just half an hour away from a developed area like Pune.”
Tushar Zhurange, Upsarpanch of Munjawadi village, said that, “99 per cent of the farmers in our village have given consent forms. We have protested for almost a decade now but we are worn out. We have given the consent form for the survey but the land acquisition will depend on later negotiations with the government. We also edited the consent forms to suit us.”
Dudi said that signing of consent forms meant that the farmers were ready to give their land for acquisition. “To build trust, we gave them freedom to remove any conditions in the forms that they did not like. Many farmers have done this. It does not matter even if the conditions are less, the consent is important,” he explained.
As Sharad Tilekar sat on the corner of his 10 acre farmland in Ekhatpur after it was surveyed by the Revenue Department officials in the afternoon, he said, “We did not want to give up our land. Where will we get such farmland? But now almost everyone has given their consent, and so on the last day, even I signed it. For how many years can a bunch of farmers oppose the government and continue to protest?”
“The ones who were leading us to protest against the acquisition were the first ones to sign the consent forms. The leaders are now encouraging everyone to sign the consent forms,” Tilekar added.
