National

Farmers up in arms over proposed power plant

CHANDIGARH: The Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, a conglomerate of Left parties, has threatened to make it a national issue in case the Punjab government failed to meet the demands of the people of the four villages of Mansa district of Punjab, who are agitating against a proposal to acquire their 2300 acres of land to set up a 2000 MW thermal power plant.

Announcing this while talking to reporters here, the Samiti chief, Prem Singh Gehlawat said that the people, especially the farmers and agricultural labour of the affected villages which include Banawali, Peeron, Raipur and Talwandi Akliya were also opposed to the proposal of handing over the plant on the “Build Operate Own” basis to some private company.

Mr. Gehlawat disclosed that a three member committee of the Samiti, which apart from him also included the Convenor of the Punjab Kisan Union (PKU), Sube Singh and former MLA, Tarsem Singh Jodhan, visited the affected villages last week. He said that it was evident that the state government had employed all tactics to terrorise the people into submission to the “pre-determined” terms and conditions.

Commenting on the prevailing conditions, Mr. Gehlawat said that the local administration was highly politicised in favour of the ruling establishment. He said that this could be well gauged that the police falsely booked six persons by name and nearly four dozens of the “unidentified” persons under section 307 of the IPC for ‘Attempt to Murder’. These people were involved in a mere scuffle with some Akali Dal workers and a Sarpanch of another village, who attended a government organised camp to “spread false propaganda that the plant would have no effect on the local environment”.

Apart from other activities by the state government, Mr. Gehlawat charged that a former MP and senior Akali leader, B.S. Bhunder and the sitting Congress MLA, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar were misleading and diverting the attention of the people.

Supplementing Mr. Gehlawat’s stance on the issue, Mr Sube Singh of the PKU, said that the administration has suggested that the farmers would get Rs 13 lakh and Rs 9.00 lakh for every acre of cultivable and barren land, respectively.

He said that acquiring land at this rate would place the farmers in quandary, especially when most of them had settled there after the partition of the country in 1947.

Mr. Singh, who was supported by a member of the state council of the liberation group of the CPI-ML, Kamaljit Singh, pointed out that most of the farmers had pledged their lands either to the banks or commission agents (Ahrtiya) for loans.

There were numerous cases where though they had physical possession, the ownership of the land in records stood in the name of the traditional ‘Jagirdars’ or ‘Zamindar’. Such farmers would get nothing in compensation, if their lands were acquired, they added.

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