Gujarat farmers turn against pilepline project

The Khedut Samaj opposes the project on two grounds: first, the seven-foot wide pipeline will be laid by digging up agricultural land along a few hundred kilometres of its route through Saurashtra, Central and South Gujarat; second, the Samaj perceives that both the Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh Governments are delaying the Sardar Sarovar Project, and does not want Madhya Pradesh to benefit at the cost of “our land”.

The second – political – reason seems the stronger motive for the Khedut Samaj’s agitation. “We will sound the alarm, and farmers in Saurashtra and the other regions through which the pipeline is planned will oppose it tooth and nail,” Desai says. “Nobody will be allowed to demarcate land on the pipeline route, nobody will be allowed to dig for laying the pipes.”

He says “thousands of acres” of agricultural land will be affected, should the project come through. “So we will prevent the laying of the pipeline.”

Desai says farmers will also organise agitations at several strategic points along the pipeline route.

“Why should our farmers allow the Madhya Pradesh Government to benefit at the cost of their land, especially when it doesn’t care for the early completion of the Narmada project, our lifeline?” he asks, adding, “The State Government and the Union Government have ignored the interests of Gujarati farmers.”

Papers for the pipeline project were signed three months ago by the Government of India, the Sultanate of Oman, the Government of Gujarat, and the Government of Madhya Pradesh. The agreement was for the shipment of Omanese crude oil to Vadinar, from where it would be piped to Bina for refinement.