“I have no other
method of earning a living. I only know how to make a living from
land,” said Mahesh Singh (62), a farmer from Ghori Bachhera.
Mahesh received Rs 9.6 lakh for his three bighas which he sold the
government. He said the lion’s share from this went into paying off
debts. “I bought a buffalo and a 3-bigha plot in Naraura near Aligarh,”
he said.
Land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district has
given rise to a new phenomenon. Farmers who were forced to hand over
their land to the government have been pushed to purchase land further
inside the state — around Aligarh and Bulandshahr.
Many of them are now technically landowners and not farmers — even
though their incomes have come down by half.
For Vir Singh of Gharbara village, one of the eight villages at the
centre of Wednesday’s police firing on farmers, there was no option but
to look for a fertile piece of land that he could till.
After the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA)
acquired about 10 bighas (roughly 10,000 square yards) of land
belonging to his family, Vir’s brother Nemvir decided to invest in
farming plots near Bulandshahr in UP.
“Our land was first acquired in 2002 for the Gautam Buddh Nagar
University campus, then in 2004 for the Taj Expressway and Unitech
projects, and finally in 2006 for the Night Safari and Castle Valley
residential project. We have received Rs 27 lakh in total as
compensation. We realised that if we did not buy land elsewhere, the
money would soon run out and we would be left with nothing,” said Vir.
Vir Singh’s family is slightly more affluent than his neighbours, but
even those with very small land holdings have invested in plots.
Mahesh Singh said he never visited the village where he owned land as
it is too far and he could afford the commute. The farmer who tills his
land keeps half the produce.
“Earlier, I grew three crops on my land and the produce belonged to me.
Now my income is half of what I earned,” said Mahesh.
Though some farmers have found out a way, the worst hit in the deal are
landless labourers.
Omprakash Balmiki is the husband of panchayat pradhan (village
headwoman) Omwati of Ghori Bachhera village and effectively the man who
runs the show.
Balmiki belongs to a caste that traditionally does not own land and
relies on manual labour for a living.
“My wife became the pradhan as the panchayat chief's seat is reserved
for those Scheduled Castes. I used to keep pigs earlier. But after my
wife became the pradhan, I stopped that and limited myself to farm
work. With the farms gone, I have no work. My son works as a sweeper in
a Noida office,” said Balmiki.
Farmers from neighbouring villages also rue land acquisition by the
government which they say is taking place simply because these are
prime properties that will cost private developers dear if they try to
purchase land themselves.
“This is simply an attempt to grab our land because we are 30 kms from
Delhi,” said Radhacharan Bhati, a resident of the neighbouring Nayi
Basti village.
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