Fresh eviction notices to Gujarat farmers of Dholera region, set aside for smart city, trigger angry protests

Thousands of farmers living in the Special Investment Region (SIR), Dholera, are again showing signs of unrest following fresh eviction notices served on them to vacate their agricultural plots. Sent under the SIR Act, the notices require the farmers to part with 50% of land.
Enraged farmers, accompanied by women and children, on Tuesday staged a protest at the Town Planning office of the Dholera region, where the Gujarat government is planning a smart city as part of the sprawling Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
The SIR Act, allows the state government to apply provisions of the Town Planning Act, which allows it to acquire 50% of agricultural land for setting up urban facilities in an area where a proposal for town planning scheme has been floated.
In all, the Gujarat government has approved six Town Planning schemes on a 902 sq km Dholera SIR, which includes a smart city. In the latest round, farmers of Town Planning scheme No 1 were sent notices, creating flutter across the region.
The notices were served following reports that Dholera SIR was given environmental clearance to go ahead with setting up smart city and industries in the region.
A farmers’ delegation, which met the Town Planning officer, wondered how he could issue notices to the farmers despite a stay order passed by the Gujarat High Court on December 10, 2015.
Said Khedut Samaj Gujarat (KSG) secretary Sagar Rabari, who has been fighting for Dholera farmers’ land rights, the Town Planning officer “flustered” and “had no proper answer to give to the farmers”, though “came down to meet them and assured them that their feelings would be communicated to the government.”
Calling the notices “contempt of court”, Rabari said in a statement, the Gujarat High Court order had asked the Gujarat government to maintain status quo in a case filed by several farmers (suit No 227/2014) seeking cancellation of SIR in the Dholera region.
The farmers had sought court intervention over earlier notices served to them in 2014 to part with 50% of land for urban infrastructure. Calling the notices “unconstitutional”, the farmers’ plea wondered how such notices could be served without gram sabha nod.
Rabari accused the Gujarat government of working as agent of big private companies seeking to evict “unarmed farmers”, adding, “Government officials, with the tacit approval of their political masters, are resorting to harassment of farmers despite the High Court stay order.”
“This shows how far the government is prepared to go in order to oppress the farmers, to push them to desperation so that cheap land, labour and water can be made available to the corporate”, he added.
Wondering whether the government is the middleman of the companies and corporate houses, Rabari wondered in his statement as why was the government, “sold to free-market logic, not facilitating a dialogue between the farmers and the corporate sector.”
“The situation is getting tenser with each passing day and very soon the time may come when it may become difficult for the administration to contain the farmers’ anger”, Rabari warned, adding, “People are only demanding that the government wind up its Dholera SIR Authority office and provide Narmada water for irrigation."

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

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.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog