Farmers resume protest against Greater Noida authority, to ban entry of BJP leaders in villages

Farmers on Tuesday resumed their protest against the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) and the Uttar Pradesh government over a host of issues, including higher compensation for their lands acquired by the local authorities.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), leading the protest, announced a ban on the entry of BJP leaders in their villages till their demands are met. On Monday, hundreds of farmers, including women, gheraoed the house of BJP's Gautam Buddh Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma in Sector 15 here.

The farmers have been protesting on issues related to compensation for their lands acquired by the GNIDA. They also staged a two-month long sit-in last year.

The AIKS, in a statement, said farmers resumed their struggle on Tuesday demanding that the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government implement the written assurances given by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA).

''Despite a written assurance by the GNIDA on September 16 last year to provide jobs to affected families and other demands, the State Government has not acted on them in the last four months,'' the AIKS said. The farmers declared an indefinite sit-in and made appeals to all trade unions, mass organisations and political parties to support them in intensifying the struggle in the days to come, the statement said. ''The farmers also criticised the local MP and MLAs for their failure to ensure the land rights of the farmers and declared that these MP, MLAs and BJP leaders will not be allowed to enter the villages till the Yogi Government implements the assurances,'' they said.

The protestors' key demands include implementation of the 12-year-old agreement by GNIDA with farmers, including compensation worth four times the circle rate of their lands, higher compensation for land that is now being acquired, employment for one member from the displaced family, health and education facilities, and land for the landless labourers from villages, among others. An AIKS leader said the farmers are currently getting around Rs 2,500 per square metre as compensation, while the land rates range from Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 per square metre. The farmers are demanding revised rates of around Rs 24,000 per square metre. He also said that the GNIDA has arranged private jobs for around 100 youths with salaries between Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000, and has also offered reserving some vending spots for women from landless families, however, other assurances given by the authority need the Uttar Pradesh government's intervention. ''There are three major points -- revision of circle rates and higher compensations, providing land to landless, and 10 per cent residential plots to be allotted to locals, which needs the intervention of the state government,'' the AIKS leader said. According to AIKS, the allotment of 10 per cent residential plots will benefit around 17,000 families with Rs land plots worth 8,000 crore.

It also claimed that the jobs being provided were not as per provisions of the Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act 2013, which provides for employment of permanent nature in government departments or public sector units with the benefits of social security for land acquisition. The protest was attended by AIKS leaders P Krishnaprasad and Pushpendra Tyagi, district president of Samajwadi Party Sudheer Bhatti, Congress' Ajay Choudhury, among others. Out of the 124 villages that were notified for acquisition by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority for urban development, including residential, industrial, institutional and recreational areas, land has already been acquired from 45 villages. In August 2008, five people were killed in firing by police after a farmers' protest outside the GNIDA office against inadequate compensation for their land turned violent. In 2011, villages Bhatta and Parsaul saw agitations over compensations, and two farmers had died in the police firing that took place following an altercation between protesters and police. In 2023, agitation started on February 7, followed by protests on March 14 and March 23. The farmers also sat on a protest in front of the authority office on April 25, which ended on June 26.