This Week Haryana: After the violence,the payment demand

Alongside labour unrest has come a notice on what Maruti Suzuki needs to pay before resuming operations at its Manesar plant,shut since the last bout of violence that saw a manager was killed

After the violence,the payment demand

Alongside labour unrest has come a notice on what Maruti Suzuki needs to pay before resuming operations at its Manesar plant,shut since the last bout of violence that saw a manager was killed. The state government has served the company a resumption notice with a demand for Rs 235 crore. This,according to the government,is the companys contribution in the enhanced compensation that needs to be paid to farmers whose land had been acquired for the plant. A Supreme Court ruling has enhanced the compensation. The company is struggling with production losses because of shutdowns caused by repeated agitations. The latest bout of violence,the second in three months,saw a portion of the plant being torched besides the killing of the manager.

Praised no longer

Once lauded for its land acquisition policy,the B S Hooda government now finds it the cause of an unending headache. There have been a series of protests in three villages in Fatehabad against acquisition for a nuclear power plant,and a fierce clash between police and farmers in Rewari. The initial praise the policy earned was because of the high compensation it offered in the NCR and its neighbourhood. Later,however,those who had accepted it realised that the compensation,however attractive,could not compare to the money the government was apparently making along with developers. Besides,the compensation in remoter areas is not as attractive.

A generation earlier…

For some time,the agitation against land acquisition for the proposed nuclear plant in Fatehabad gave opposition parties something to target the government with. That was until the government found a means to silence two opposition leaders whose fathers had been chief ministers. During their tenures,both the INLDs Devi Lal and the Haryana Janhit Congresss Bhajan Lal had written to the Centre in favour of a nuclear plant,the government has found. When the INLDs present chief Om Prakash Chautala and the HJCs Kuldeep Bishnoi took up the protesters cause,the government produced copies of their fathers letters. Since then,neither son has been heard on this.

Still waiting for rain

Two months into the monsoon,Haryana remains starved for rain as ever. One of half a dozen states facing a drought or drought-like situation,Haryana had till last week a 79 per cent rain deficiency,compared with an overall 22 per cent for the country. Rainfall has been in excess in only 1 per cent of the countrys area,normal in 35 per cent,deficient in 52 per cent,and scanty in 12 per cent the bracket in which Haryana falls. The Bhakra Beas Management Board has issued an alert that unless the weather improves,supply to Haryana and Punjab might have to be curtailed. Seven of Haryanas thermal plants are shut.