Noida farmers protest: Not told our land was for farms

Chaman Pradhan,former head of Mangroli Chaproli village,claimed that the authorities never informed farmers that their land had been acquired for sale later as farmland.

“We have agricultural land on which we are farming for people. Our produce is for the people of this country. We are going to demand cancellation of farmland allotments. The authorities have no right to snatch our agriculture land and sell it to wealthy people on the condition that they will use 1,000 sq m for house construction and farm on the remaining portion of the 10,000 sq m plot,” Pradhan said.

The farmers plan to hold a Mahapanchayat on May 1 against the allotments. Jai Veer Kasana,a farmer leader,said the land was acquired by invoking Clause 6 and sub-clause 17. This,he said,denoted that the government was acquiring land as an emergency.

“When they invoke the emergency clause,we do not get time to register our objections. We all want to know what was the emergency in allotting farmland to wealthy people without intimating us,” Kasana said.

Shyam Singh,a farmer and an advocate,said his land was acquired on March 14. “A messenger came to the village to notify us that our land has been allotted.”

“There are 3,000 villagers whose 1,400 bighas have been acquired and allotted as farmland. I was farming the day when someone came to see his farm house land. I was shocked. I knew the government would be acquiring our land but I did not know that it had already been allotted and that too for farming purposes,” said a resident of Yakubpur.

Asked about the decision to allot acquired agricultural land for farming,a senior NOIDA official said it was the first time that farm houses had been allotted legally.

“The villagers have been told about the acquisition and the Clause 6 (17) sub-clause is invoked every time there is acquisition to be done. Since we wanted to keep the greenery intact,we set the condition that owners will use the farmland for farming,” the official said.