Didi calling,IT hub sees farmers move back in,grow crops

“We will welcome Didi with green. The moment Didi comes here in Rajarhat she will only see green and green. There is no sign of red bricks,” says Imtanul Dhali,a farmer in Patharghata,Rajarhat.

Addressing a massive rally in the area on Saturday,Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee proclaimed that her government would probe allegations of land being forcibly taken from farmers and given to industrial houses and restore the same to rightful owners. However,she added,individual flat owners — who have paid lakhs of rupees for houses in the new township — would not be harmed.

Two Assembly constituencies of Rajarhat-Gopalpur and Rajarhat-Newtown fall in the Rajarhat township,and will go to polls in the third phase on April 27.

Calling Didi,farmers grow crops in investment hub

Farmers in Rajarhat-Newtown areas of Patharghata,Ghuni,Yatragachi,Kadambapukur,Chapna and Rekjoani say “with Didi coming to power”,they would never allow their land to be used for anything other than agriculture.

Housing Minister Gautam Deb,under whose chairmanship of HIDCO land was acquired,dismisses these claims. “The plots are lying vacant as the developers are yet to start construction. We will not stop the farmers now. But when construction starts,within 24 hours,all crops will be destroyed and the plots will be ready for developers,” he says.

With the Trinamool putting up green-colour boards on many of the plots with the party slogan “Ma,Maati,Manush”, Deb fumes: “Who are they to tell the government whether the plot would be given to developers or not? They are supported and encouraged by an unruly political party. If this is allowed,one day farmers will start farming in land near the Shahid Minar ground and on the Maidan.”

But farmers who say they had been waiting for the announcement of elections to move in are settled for the long haul. They have even installed shallow tubewells to lift water from the Bagjola canal for irrigation — the deep tubewells previously in use had been taken off service when HIDCO acquired the farmlands.

The farmers in Tegharia village have cultivated at least 100 acres of land,which include 54 acres acquired by HIDCO to hand it over to Tata Housing. There are standing crops of paddy,vegetables and mustard in the land near the eight-acre site of Tata Housing where construction has already begun. The boundary walls raised by HIDCO for demarcating the plots have been brought down by the farmers.

“If Gautam Deb has money,he can go and grab land on the moon now,but not in Rajarhat any more. Didi is with us and now if he even looks at our land,we will make him blind,” says Habibul Siddiqi,a farmer in Tegharia village.

Cultivation had earlier been forcibly stopped in the area in 2007,after HIDCO served land acquisition notices. Meher Ali Mollah,an 80-year-old share cropper of Tegharia,who lost a small piece of land that was later rendered infertile,is happy. “My two cottah of land was devoured by land sharks. I am a beggar now. But I can at least see paddy growing in these lands now,” he says.

Sayad Ali,convener of the Rajarhat Krishi Jami Jiban Raksha Committee,adds: “We knew that once election is declared,we need not be afraid of any pressure… We knew that land will now remain with us.”