Affrontements meurtriers à Aligarth अलीगढ़ (Uttar Pradesh) – août 2010

Farmers warn they’ll block all highways if govt doesn’t revise land compensation within two days

TNN

Aug 17, 2010,

JIKARPURI (UP): What for Delhiites will be a smooth two-hour drive to Agra via the under-construction Yamuna Expressway, has become, for 10,000-odd farmers of six villages in Aligarh, a battle for livelihood. They have been agitating for the past 20 days – since the time they realised that a large part of the 500 hectares that they have cumulatively signed off is going to be used not just for building the road but for developing a township by a private developer. And the compenstaion they say is a fraction of the market value of their land.

The agitation has been on for 20 days but it was the police firing in the wake of their leader Rambabu Katheliya’s arrest on the eve of Independence Day that left three people dead that has had political leaders like former BJP presidentRajnath Singh and INLD chiefAjit Singh decsending on the long and dusty stretch of the under-construction expressway interspersed with patches of concrete. It is one of these patches that the bloodstains from two days back are still clearly visible. Several in the crowd sports a bandaged head or limb.

There is little belief in the promises of politicians and they get a patient audience but anger is boiling over. Says Satyadev Mandela of Gangholi village, « We are giving them two days. We have lost our brothers and friends. If they do not revise the conpensation amount fast we will start blockading highways and setting police stations on fire. We have reached our tether’s end. »

Says Chhila Singh of Kirpalpur Village, « I have 50 bighas land which should fetch me at least 8.80 lakh in the market. They are not even giving me half that amount and for the past two months the entire district administration has been pressuring me to write the land off. I have a family to feed, how can i give in like that. What will happen to my children? »

His story is repeated time and again as hundreds queue up to talk about their own cases. Things had been smooth initially, says Buddha Singh of Jikarpur. Of the 500 hectares that was to be acquired 200 was procured without too much trouble. But after that news spread that while farmers here were being offered Rs 434 per square metre compensation, those in Noida were getting Rs 850.

Thousands have assembled at the site of the expressway and there is lusty sloganeering from below the rampart. Cries of « krishi bachao, zameen bachao » and « desh bachao » emanate from the makeshift tent. Rather evocatively, there are bags of Jaypee Cement littered on the road. Jaypee is the developer who will build the model township once the land has been acquired.

« Some 300-odd hectares could not be acquired as the farmers refused to sign the deed demanding just compensation. We were not united and the government had hoped they would get away with cheating us. Thev refusal brought the entire government machinery upon us. Freshly sown fields were destroyed with JCBs and farmers were left shattered, » Buddha says pointing to the green fields just below the road. « It has been more than a month and look at the dense vegetation that has taken over the land where we would have had our crops. »

The agitation had been largely peaceful till last Saturday. The arrest of Rambabu Katheliya, according to Dharampal Singh a lecturer at the Panchanan Inter college in Gaurola, is what caused farners to become impatient. Before that they had been lathicharged and teargassed but they had never lost patience. When on Saturday afternoon, the entire district administration descended on an unarmed Kathiyal, beat him up and dragged him away, people got impatient and they started asking for his release. That is when police started firing real bullets in place of teargas shells.

Violence erupts in Aligarh over land aquisition

CNN-IBN

Aug 15, 2010

Aligarh: Two have been killed and many others injured after police fired at protesting farmers on Saturday.

The farmers had been sitting in a dharna for the past few weeks demanding higher compensation for the land acquired for the Yamuna Expressway project.

Things came to a head when the police tried to forcibly remove them. The angry farmers torched vehicles and two police posts.

The farmers of the area have been on a path of agitation demanding higher compensation rate for the land acquired for a township project by a leading real estate group along the Delhi-Agra Taj Expressway.

The farmers want the same compensation rate, which was given to owners of the land acquired between Aligarh and Noida.

The agitation is spreading from Aligarh to Mathura and authorities have sent Rapid Action Force and Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel to Jikarpur village.

Two killed as police open fire on protesting farmers

TNN

Aug 15, 2010

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh had its own Nandigram and Singur moments when protesting farmers, seeking higher compensation for their land, fought pitched battles with police in Aligarh and Mathura districts on Saturday evening.

Two persons, including a police personnel, were reportedly killed and several injured in the clashes that started from Tappal in Aligarh and spread to nearby areas of Mathura. The angry mob also set afire around three dozen vehicles, two police outposts and a post office.

Violence broke out after police took farmer leaderRam Babu into custody. The farmers were staging a demonstration at Tappal demanding higher compensation for their land acquired by the government for construction of the Yamuna Expressway. According to unconfirmed reports, the district magistrate and police chief of Aligarh were trapped inside Tappal police station till late on Saturday night as protesters had blocked the road to Aligarh town.

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA from Khair, Satpal Chaudhary, who was on the spot, told TOI that farmers had been agitating for the past one week demanding compensation at par with their counterparts in Noida

for the land acquired for construction of Yamuna Expressway and associated townships proposed in Agra, Aligarh, Mathura, Noida and Greater Noida.

On Saturday evening, Chaudhary claimed police swooped down on peaceful demonstrators, cane-charged them and took Ram Babu into custody.

Two killed as farmers, India police clash over land

Reuters

Sat Aug 14, 2010

By Alka Pande

LUCKNOW India – At least two people were killed and several wounded in northern India on Saturday in clashes between police and farmers angry at what they say is low compensation for land taken to build a highway, officials said.

Police opened fire after the protesters attacked them with stones and set vehicles on fire in Uttar Pradesh state’s Aligarh where the government is building a $2 billion (1 billion pounds) six-lane highway to connect the Taj Mahal city of Agra with capital New Delhi.

K.R. Mohan Rao, a local government official at Aligarh, said the dead included a policeman who had been shot from the crowd. Indian media reports said at least four people had died in the police firing. Rao said he could not confirm that figure.

The state government has already acquired 1500 hectares of land spread over 355 villages. Locals say the compensation they received for their land was half the market price of about $20 (12.81 pounds) per sq metre.

Saturday’s incident is the latest in a string of violence surrounding government efforts to acquire farmland for industry in India, where two-thirds of the 1.2 billion population is dependent on agriculture.

Such protests have delayed plans by South Korea’s POSCO to build a $12 billion (7 billion pounds) integrated steel mill in eastern India and India-focussed miner Vedanta Resources Plc’s plans to push ahead with a long-stalled bauxite mine.

The standoff over land for industry has also been seized on by India’s Maoist rebels who are building on farmers’ anger and a wider resentment that foreign firms are being allowed to displace poor people and cart away natural resources.