Last harvest for many

Ravinder Singh sits wistfully near his farm land in Paarsaul village, looking at wheat and mustard crop. He fears perhaps this would be the last harvest he could have from the fertile land which has been acquired by the Uttar Pradesh government to build an eight-lane expressway and a business zone between Delhi and Agra.

The recent amendments to the Land Act have taken off the protective cover the law provided, he claimed. “The land in Bhatta-Paarsaul was acquired in 2009-10. The earlier law had a provision that if the land is not used for the purpose it was acquired, it would be returned to the farmer,” Singh said.

The twin villages of Bhatta and Paarsaul hogged the headlines in May 2011 when Congress scion Rahul Gandhi joined the protests against land acquisition initiated by the state government. The villages are located a few km away from the Formula 1 racing track that has come up near the expressway.

The protests had brought into focus the controversial law. The previous UPA government had enacted the new law that attempted to give the process a more humane face.

Acres and acres of land on either side of the 165-km Delhi-Agra Yamuna Expressway is lush green with standing wheat crop marked with pockets of yellow flowers of the mustard plants. “Perhaps, this could be the last crop we harvest as the land may not remain with us following changes in the law,” said Hansraj Sharma another resident of the area. Sharma claims that the ordinance has done away with a crucial clause in the 2013 Act that made it mandatory for the government to return the land to the farmer after five years if it was not used for the purpose it was acquired for.

Many farmers in the twin villages had moved the Allahabad High Court against the government step to acquire land. The court has granted stay to the acquisition process. The villagers feel that the Ordinance may affect farmers’ interests in the court case and that they may have to forego their land soon. Another grouse of the villagers is that the government paid them very little compensation but sold the acquired land to private builders at a much higher price.

“We were paid Rs 820 per sq m of land. The land was sold to private players at much higher prices,” said Anoop Singh, a resident of Paarsaul. Singh said. Another 35 villages around Jewar, about 20 km from Paarsaul, have been marked for acquisition by the government for building an international airport.