Project,Interrupted

Two separate notifications,issued by the Uttar Pradesh government in March and May 2009 declared that 488.1261 acres in the five villages of Kansera,Zikarpur,Kripalpur,Jahangarh and Tappal were due to be acquired for the development of an integrated township. The District Magistrates Office in Aligarh conducted a survey that identified 1,950 farmers as the owners of this land. The farmers were offered a compensation of Rs 425 per square metre for their land. Subsequent litigation in the Allahabad HC delayed the actual physical acquisition of land.

According to records obtained from the DMs office,as of August 13,1,091 farmers had been given compensation and 210.64 hectares physically acquired and handed over to Jaypee Infratech Limited - the contractor charged with the construction of the Yamuna Expressway and the adjoining developments. Jaypee constructed a temporary boundary around the acquired land,and the UP government continued cajoling and persuading the 919 farmers who were still to hand over their land. Meanwhile,the farmers began large-scale protests in mid-July across Mathura and Aligarh that eventually led the UP government to revise its compensation rates in the Aligarh district to Rs. 570 per square metre.

We are in the process of preparing,and handing out revised cheques but due to the protests we have been unable to take physical possession of the land quite as yet, explains R K Pandey,the Special Land Acquisition Officer in the Aligarh District Magistrates Office. These villages,all five of them,share their boundary with Gautam Budh Nagar where farmers were paid Rs 880 per square metres. When the farmers in the villages around Zikarpur realised this,they naturally demanded that they too be compensated at the same rates, Pandey explained.

When asked how many among the remaining 919 have refused to sell their land,Pandey says,As per the notification,the land is now government property and is earmarked for specific projects. They will all have to sell. But,the farmers are digging in their heels.

A VILLAGE PROTESTS

There is anger and resentment in Zikarpur,where the protests took a violent turn on August 15 when three people were killed in police firing. The villagers have torn down the flimsy boundary wall constructed by Jaypee,and all work on the stretch of the Expressway that runs through these five villages has come to a standstill.

The Jaypee Group has elaborate plans in place for the proposed model township that will rise where these five village stand today,but for the last few days the villagers have refused to allow any Jaypee official or labourers to set foot at the site. We want to develop Tappal and the surrounding villages along the lines of Greater Noida as a completely self sufficient township, explains Samir Gaur,Director Incharge,Jaypee Infratech.

Gaur admits that his every waking hour is spent working on the Expressway and its subsidiary development projects. We are setting up Abadi colonies in the area where farmers can buy 7 per cent of the land that they sold at the cost that they sold it,except that the land will now be developed and have all modern facilities, he explains. Asked if he saw the farmers protest coming,Gaur says,I think 85 per cent of the farmers are pleased with the rate offered,but not everyone is pleased.

Officials at the Jaypee group believe that Tappal and the surrounding villages have become a political battlefield. They cite stories of the nearly 8,000 labourers who are currently without jobs since work at this stretch of the Expressway is at a standstill.

LUCKY IN GOPALGARH

Barely 10 km from Zikarpur lies Gopalgarh,a village no different from Zikarpur in any discernible manner except that it has the good fortune of falling in the Gautam Budh Nagar district. Farmers in Gopalgarh have been offered Rs 880 per square metre for their land. How is their land any different from mine? Its not more fertile,its just the same,and we demand that we should be given the same rates of compensation, says 45-year-old Lakshman Singh,who owns 4 acres in village Kansera which has been earmarked for acquisition at Rs 575 per square metres.

Farmers across western UP are demanding that the rates of compensation for their land be bought at par with the rates offered in Gautam Budh Nagar. However,farmers in Gautam Budh Nagar are nursing their own resentment.

The government is buying this land from us for Rs 880 per square metre,and then they are selling the plots for Rs 4,700 square metres. How is that fair,and where will we go once our land has been taken over? asks Jagbir Singh Malik,a 60-year-old farmer from Parsaul,one of the largest villages to fall under the acquisition drive.

The Yamuna Expressway Authority,which is developing Sectors 18 and 20 in Gautam Budh Nagar,confirmed that it allotted 21,000 pots for residential purposes at Rs 4,700 per square metre in a draw that was held in November 2009. S P Singh,the Information Officer at the Yamuna Expressway Authority,confirmed that some of these plots were in the villages of Dhankaur and Parsaul where land was acquired at Rs 880 per square metre.

Amit Kasana,a property dealer in village Dhankaur,says buying and selling in this belt of Gautam Budh Nagar has come to a complete halt. People are scared of buying because the government has shown that it can acquire at measly rates at any point. We had sold some plots for Rs 2,000 per square metre a few years ago at the spot where the new sports city is coming up,but the government acquired that land for Rs 880 per square metre. The people we sold to suffered a great loss.

In villages across Gautam Budh Nagar,land acquisition is discussed fervently. Even with the compensation,what will we do? Where will we go? It is almost as if our identity is being wiped out so that people can get from Delhi to Agra faster, says Master Bhagwan Singh,a school teacher,who was compensated for 36 bighas of his ancestral land in Parsaul.

THE DISHONEST BROKERS

Meanwhile,the rich,fertile land at Zikarpur,and in the villages around it,has evolved into a launching pad for small town men with grand political aspirations. I am S S Vidyarthi,vice-president,and spokesman of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, a bearded man introduces himself to us and launches into a lengthy speech about farmers rights,. The loftily named Kisan Sangharsh Samiti was formed less than 20 days ago to reap the advantages of being associated with a farmers struggle.

Men like Vidyarthi have spread out and snatched the reins of the protests from farmers. This is no longer the farmers movement,it has been seized by the politicians, Pandey tell us. Farmers are now learning to distrust men such as him. Everyday new netas come and tell us that they will intervene on our behalf. We do not know who is fooling us and who isnt, says Rambir Singh.

The real politicians arent far behind either,with everyone from Rahul Gandhi to Rajnath Singh having visited Ground Zero.