Sombre I-Day for Agra, Mathura, Aligarh farmers

AGRA - The Independence Day celebrations in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra, Mathura and Aligarh districts lacked the usual festive and upbeat mood Sunday, a day after two people were killed when police fired at farmers demanding higher compensation for the acquisition of their land.

The anger was visible in the districts as farmers were seen at tea stalls and other meeting places discussing the tragedy even as the echo of national anthem being sung by students could be heard in the background.

The clashes between the farmers and police took place Saturday night when protesters indulged in stone-pelting in Aligarh. The violence soon spread to Mathura where farmers torched several vehicles. A policeman and a farmer were killed while about a dozen people injured.

The farmers demanded higher compensation for their land for the Yamuna Expressway between Noida and Agra.

“The state government is promoting new East India companies. The private sector has become aggressive and blood-thirsty backed by corrupt politicians. They wanted land for the Expressway, but now they are acquiring land for new townships. Does any one have any idea how much agricultural land was being turned into concrete jungles?” asked green activist and farmer Ravi Singh of Barauli Aheer block in Agra.

Meanwhile, the state government has ordered high alert and greater vigilance in areas that are to be acquired for the construction of the Expressway, after reports that farmers groups in Agra and Mathura were being mobilised for a showdown with the administration.

The almost 200-km-long Expressway is now turning red with frequent violent clashes between the government machinery and farmers’ groups.

Farmers in Mathura, Aligarh and Agra have been agitating for the past several months for higher compensation for their land. A large number of them had refused to part with their agricultural holdings. But the state government reportedly asked the sub-divisional magistrates and other officials to pressure the farmers to vacate their land and accept whatever was offered.

This led to several maha panchayats where peasant leaders openly charged the administration with playing into the hands of a corporate group that is building the Expressway.

The Supreme Court had, a week ago, asked the state government to explain how construction work was allowed on the project without it having been cleared by the apex court. This has added fuel to the farmer’s ire. In the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone, spread over 10,040 sq kms, not a brick can be laid without clearance from the Supreme Court.

Environmentalists in this Taj city had warned the state government long ago of the serious ecological damage that could imbalance the rainfall pattern in this fertile belt which is famous for potato cultivation.

The Expressway, scheduled for completion early next year, is planned to be located along the Yamuna river between Noida and Agra.

On both sides of the Expressway, huge townships, SEZs and institutional areas have been planned for which agricultural land is being acquired.

“If the farmers were to sell land on their own, they would stand to gain many times more than what is being offered as peanuts by the Jaypee group (that is building the Expressway),” said Sachendra Kumar Singh, a farmer’s leader of Hathras.