Skip to main content

Dholera smart city: Gujarat govt uses private agency for processing land acquisition, "violates" High Court ruling

Farmers display their land title in Dholera SIR
In a move which is being interpreted as violation of the High Court ruling, the Gujarat government has begun the work of land acquisition process in the Dholera special investment region (SIR), situated in the south of Ahmedabad district.
On December 10, 2015 the High Court had stayed land acquisition, asking the sate government to maintain status quo. It asked the government “not to proceed with land acquisition or related activities.”
Bringing this to light, the Khedut Samaj – Gujarat (KSG), in a statement, said that the process of land acquisition has “begun with the help of the agencies to which it has outsourced the job of work of land measurement.”
The Gujarat government wants to set up a greenfield smart city in Dholera region by applying the town planning Act on a huge area of about 900 sq km area, on which the SIR has been visualized.
Under the town planning Act, the state government is empowered to take away 40 to 50 per cent of the agricultural land in the name of developing urban infrastructure.
Despite the hype around it, no investor has turned up to invest in Dholera SIR because it is supposed to be a low lying, flood prone area, requiring massive infrastructure investment in order to fill up the land region.
Calling it a direct violation of the court order, the KSG has said that the process of land measurement has “happened thrice already in the last 10 days”, when the agency’s officials “have visited the land, but people have thrown them out of their land.”
Wondering whether the Gujarat government is “hell-bent on disregarding the court orders”, the KSG said, “Can the people be expected to remain patient? It is possible that the state government is deliberately trying to precipitate a crisis under the pretext of crushing the farmers’ agitation.”
KSG said, it seems the Gujarat government is “trying to tell the people, 'I am the monarch of all I survey, it is my right, there is none to dispute. The High Court orders do not bother us, we will do as we wish'.”
Calling it a display of “undemocratic and criminal core” of the Gujarat government, the KSG said, this type of attitude is “pushing the state towards anarchy.”
Calling land measurement a “blatant illegality and unconstitutionality on display”, the KSG said, “The 22 villages falling in the proposed Dholera SIR area have been agitating since the last four years. Their peaceful and non-violent struggle has gone unheeded by the Gujarat government.”
“The protests have received the support of Khedut Samaj – Gujarat and Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat. The local farmers and the Khedut Samaj – Gujarat had challenged the DSIR and the SIR Act 2009 (under which Dholera SIR has been declared) through a PIL in the High Court in 2014”, KSG said.

Comments

TRENDING

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.

What's wrong with those seeking to promote Sanskrit? An ex-Hindi professor has the answer

Ajay Tiwari  I have always wondered why certain elite sections are so fascinated by Sanskrit, to the extent of even practicing speaking a language that, for all practical purposes, isn’t alive. During my Times of India stint in Gandhinagar, the Gujarat state capital, I personally witnessed an IAS bureaucrat, Bhagyesh Jha, trying to converse with a friend in Sanskrit.