Gujarat's smart city project in Dholera SIR faces fresh threat: From Kolis, numercially strong OBC community

Kunvarji Bavalia

By A Representative
In a development of far-reaching political significance, the powerful association representing the numerically strong Other Backward Class (OBC) community of Gujarat, Kolis, has announced its backing to the farmers' demand to scrap the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), situated in the south of Ahmedabad, along the Gulf of Khambhat.
Declared SIR by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his chief ministership of Gujarat on a 920 sq km of land, Dholera SIR is one of the major regions where the state government has planned a Greenfield smart city with all the modern amenities.
A mini-Japan township proposal for the Japanese businessmen coming to India to set up the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is also pending for the Dholera SIR region, one reason why the state government is so keen to go ahead with the smart city project. Also pending is a proposal to set up a world class international airport bordering Dholera SIR.
Fresh opposition to Dholera SIR has come after at least three SIRs in Gujarat – at Olpad, Hazira and Mandal-Bhechraji – were either scrapped or scaled down following farmers' agitations. So far, the agitation against Dholera SIR, led by Gujarat Khedut Samaj, had failed to pick up, as it had failed to gather numerically strong Kolis.
Ever since Dholera was declared to be developed as SIR about a decade ago, the landed farmers, mainly consisting of upper caste Rajputs and Patels, began taking strong exception to the state government's declared plan to take away about 50 per cent of of land under the pretext of setting up urban infrastructure in Dholera SIR.
More recently, the Gujarat government move to declared the land, currently in physical possession of small and marginal farmers, mainly Kolis, as belonging to state government, caused a major flutter in the OBC community, which forms nearly 80 per cent of the population of the region.
Talking with newspersons in Ahmedabad, Akhil Bharatiya Koli Samaj's Gujarat president Kunvarji Bawalia, a former Congress MP, declared his organization's support to the big farmers' demand to scrap SIR and not meddle with the big and small farmers' land rights.
“We have decided to organize a demonstration on April 24 on the gate of Dholera SIR in favour of our demand, on the highway between Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar. The demonstration has been necessitated because the state government has, by a simple declaration, taken away land allocated to the Kolis during the land reforms day”, he said.
“What has made things particularly queer”, Bawalia said, “is that, while thousands of hectares of land in Dholera SIR area was handed over to about 2,500 Koli families as part of the land reforms during the 1960s, the successive state governments never cared to issue title certificates to the farmers tilling the land.”
“Taking advantage of this officla lapse”, Bawalia said, “the state government has declared about 28,000 hectares, cultivated by mainly Koli small and marginal farmers, as government land; the land has been transferred to the Dholera SIR authority and put up for sale.”
Pointing out that the Kolis face the predicament of becoming landless, Bawalia said, “We plan to gather about 1 lakh Kolis and other communities, including Patels and Kshatriyas, to oppose the SIR. Recently, Satyarayan Pawar, the all-India president of the Akhil Bharatiya Khedut Samaj has visited the SIR and met with local community leaders and declared support.”
Answering newspersons, Bawalia – who was accompanied by regional Koli chief Karsanbhai Chauhan, former MLA Ranchhodbhai Mer, and five other community leaders – said, “We are not opposed to industrialization of the region. However, we oppose land acquisition in the name of SIR by taking away farmers' land without consulting village panchayats. If industrialists want, they can directly negotiate with farmers.”

Comments

Gujarat Information Commission issues warning against misinterpretation of RTI orders

By A Representative The Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has issued a press note clarifying that its orders limiting the number of Right to Information (RTI) applications for certain individuals apply only to those specific applicants. The GIC has warned that it will take disciplinary action against any public officials who misinterpret these orders to deny information to other citizens. The press note, signed by GIC Secretary Jaideep Dwivedi, states that the Right to Information Act, 2005, is a powerful tool for promoting transparency and accountability in public administration. However, the commission has observed that some applicants are misusing the act by filing an excessive number of applications, which disproportionately consumes the time and resources of Public Information Officers (PIOs), First Appellate Authorities (FAAs), and the commission itself. This misuse can cause delays for genuine applicants seeking justice. In response to this issue, and in acc...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

'MGNREGA crisis deepening': NSM demands fair wages and end to digital exclusions

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a coalition of independent unions of MGNREGA workers, has warned that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is facing a “severe crisis” due to persistent neglect and restrictive measures imposed by the Union Government.

Gandhiji quoted as saying his anti-untouchability view has little space for inter-dining with "lower" castes

By A Representative A senior activist close to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has defended top Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy’s controversial utterance on Gandhiji that “his doctrine of nonviolence was based on an acceptance of the most brutal social hierarchy the world has ever known, the caste system.” Surprised at the police seeking video footage and transcript of Roy’s Mahatma Ayyankali memorial lecture at the Kerala University on July 17, Nandini K Oza in a recent blog quotes from available sources to “prove” that Gandhiji indeed believed in “removal of untouchability within the caste system.”

Targeted eviction of Bengali-speaking Muslims across Assam districts alleged

By A Representative A delegation led by prominent academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey visited three districts in Assam—Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur—between 2 and 4 September 2025 to meet families affected by recent demolitions and evictions. The delegation reported widespread displacement of Bengali-speaking Muslim communities, many of whom possess valid citizenship documents including Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, PAN cards, and NRC certification.

'Centre criminally negligent': SKM demands national disaster declaration in flood-hit states

By A Representative The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has urged the Centre to immediately declare the recent floods and landslides in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Haryana as a national disaster, warning that the delay in doing so has deepened the suffering of the affected population.

Saffron Kingdom – a cinematic counter-narrative to The Kashmir Files

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* “Saffron Kingdom” is a film produced in the United States by members of the Kashmiri diaspora, positioned as a response to the 2022 release “The Kashmir Files.” While the latter focused on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits and framed Kashmiri Muslims as perpetrators of violence, “Saffron Kingdom” seeks to present an alternate perspective—highlighting the experiences of Kashmiri Muslims facing alleged abuses by Indian security forces.

From lazy to lost? The myths and realities behind generational panic about youth

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak Older generations in many societies often describe the young with labels such as “lazy, unproductive, lost, anxious, depoliticised, unpatriotic or wayward.” Others see them as “social media, mobile phone and porn addicts.” Such judgments arise from a generational anxiety rooted in fears of losing control and from distorted perceptions about youth, especially in the context of economic crises, conflicts, and wars in which many young lives are lost.

'Govts must walk the talk on gender equality, right to health, human rights to deliver SDGs by 2030'

By A Representative With just 64 months left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global health and rights advocates have called upon governments to honour their commitments on gender equality and the human right to health. Speaking ahead of the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), experts warned that rising anti-rights and anti-gender pushes are threatening hard-won progress on SDG-3 (health and wellbeing) and SDG-5 (gender equality).

Counterview

Search This Blog