Political Battleground

Political Battleground

The Maya government is apparently at loggerheads with opposition parties on the land acquisition issue. Politicians have intensified their campaign against the government keeping next year’s polls in their minds.

Four persons, including two policemen were killed as protesting farmers and administration clashed on May 7 at Bhatta-Parsaul, the twin villages,  which have become the nerve centre of the land acquisition protests. Several rounds of gunshots were fired from both the sides. District Magistrate of Noida Deepak Agarwal and SSP, S N Singh were also injured in the firing.

Since then the two adjoining villages are abuzz with politicians and media persons, jamming streets of these villages.

Mayawati government is facing the heat of the recent events that took place in these two villages. The problem lies in the variation of acquisition rates offered to farmers. Farmers of Tappal, a village in Aligarh and centre stage of the protests from the very inception of the protests, are demanding rates equal to their counterparts bordering Delhi.

The issue has given opposition parties an opportunity to corner Maya government.   It seems,  Rahul Gandhi, taking a cue from Mamta’s landslide victory in West Bengal reached Bhatta-Parsual during the wee hours on May 11, riding pillion on a motor cycle, dodging strong police presence tried to encash the “opportunity”.  The issue intensified on the same night after police arrested the leader. Many congress supporters and leaders landed in the twin villages, supporting farmers’ protests and condemning police action against them.

But Congress must introspect its own policies while criticizing others’. The same party vowed to go ahead in Jaitapur, despite the fact that farmers as well as environment activists are protesting against the proposed nuclear power  project. Even former Chief justice of Delhi High Court, A P Shah has said in his report that no safety study was undertaken while 

finalizing the project.

Farmers of Srikakulam are dissenting against the proposed thermal power plant on their soil. Three farmers were killed and several others were injured when police opened fire on the protesting farmers. Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi, an organization, which is protesting against the proposed plant has crossed its 600 days of protest.  But congress has backed the project and there are no signs that the government will back out on the issue.

The party has come to power for the second time, but there are no visible efforts to confirm that it tried to create a consensus on the pending bills on land acquisition. The “dual standards” adopted by Congress makes it clear that it has no other interest in Bhatta or Parsual but to convert the agonized farmers as their votes.

There are rumours floating in the atmosphere that senior congress leader Digvijay Singh paid a huge sum to farmer leader Manvir Singh Tewatia to “incite” farmers and embarrass the 

Maya government.

Police is now on the lookout for the leader who fled from the scene the very same day. Police is also probing at the ammunition front. Its noteworthy that farmers confronted the well equipped security  personnels. There were reports of heavy firing from farmers’ side. Who provided ammunition to farmers is an issue to be probed seriously.

Senior Bhartiya Janta Party leaders including Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Arun Jaitley visited the villages and consented to extend their “full support” to the farmers. However, Singh and Jaitley were taken into “preventive custody” later.

UP Chief Minister Mayawati blamed Congress for farmers' protests in different parts of the country. She said that there was a need for uniform policy on land acquisition and her party will “raise” the issue in Parliament. She was addressing a party meeting in Chandigarh.

UP in past few months have witnessed several mass protests. The farmers of the state are asking for a uniform rate policy and till date, the UP government has not found any remedy to pacify the agitating farmers.

The cause of the May 2011 protests in Uttar Pradesh are disputed: the protestors claim that they are a direct consequence of the land acquisition has been challenged by the state government, which has stated that the acquisitions had been completed by July 2010 and that the 2011 protests were due to "anti-social" elements encouraging the violence. The farmers believe that the compensation paid by the state government for their land was inadequate, whereas the government believes it to be generous.

In the recent past, the country has witnessed widespread protests in different parts against land acquisition, which in turn either shelved the project or resulted in several casualties. Politicians are voicing for a “stronger and farmer friendly” law on land acquisition. However, Land Acquisition Amendment, Rehabilitation, and Replacement Bills are ready for past five years but the only wait it has to get the “political consensus” of the leaders to pass it in both of the houses.

The farmers have been agitating since January this year for better compensation for the land acquired by the UP government for the Rs 9739-crore Yamuna Expressway. They have also demanded a share in the land after it was finally developed.

Eleven villages had been notified by the authority in the first phase of land acquisition. The expressway will be 160 km long and six-laned, connecting Greater Noida with Agra.

Summer Delight

Summer Delight

The recently held mango festival gave Delhites an opportunity to taste mangoes from all across the country. Several varieties of mangoes were on display during the three day-long fair.

Various varieties of mangoes were on display in the fest

Horti Sangam 2011, an inter-state agriculture fair was held in Delhi from May 27 to May 30.  The fair opened on a good note with people from all across the capital showed a keen interest in the festival. The festival is held every year in the month of May, and this was the eight time it was held in Delhi. Several varieties of mangoes were put on the display on May 27 this year.

Mango growers from all across the nation participated in the event enthusiastically.

India is the largest producer of mangoes in the world. India exports about 40,000 tonnes of mango in 80 countries and annual sales of mangoes and mango products export reached 85 million U.S. dollars in 2009-10.

M C Shanthakumar, a mango grower from Tamil Nadu shared his experience, “ This is the first time I am taking part in this festival. This is a good experience for me. We have brought over 10 varieties of mangoes for the customers here. The most selling variety is Alphonso and others which are witnessing good demand is Banisha and Malguava.”

On the Madhya Pradesh stall, there were several varieties of mango were on display. ‘Dussehri’ one of the most popular mango variety was available in the stall and people were thronging to buy it from here. Indra Kumar Rawat, one of the farmers from the state, looked happy. He said that he learnt a lot from here and will use this experience to further improve the production and quality of his produces.

L S Rautkar, Senior Horti Development officer from Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh was accompanying the farmers in the fest. He said, “  We are here to learn from other growers. Our major focus is to improve the quality of mango we grow in the state. Through these events, we give our farmers a platform to exchange ideas with the farmers of other states. We are telling them the benefits of cultivation management and training them to use drip irrigation to increase productivity.”   

However, Many other shop-owners (read mango-growers) complaint that “lack of publicity” have eaten their business. They blamed organizers for the “low turnout” of customers. Salil Damle, a mango trader from Maharashtra was apparently unhappy with the organizers. He blamed authorities for not “publicizing” the event.

However customer relations desk of the event rubbished the blame. They said that scorching heat is one of the major reasons for low turnout of people.  Sarita Agarwal, who came all the way from Ghaziabad to buy Alphonso hailed the event. She bought over 10 kgs of mango. She said, “ Though, many varieties of mangoes are available in the city, but we don’t get such a diverse range to choose from. I am happy that the festival is organized.”