Thermal power project divides farmers
Kamaldeep Singh Brar [email protected]
THEHRI (MUKTSAR):

) We know the government is paying less. But our land is waterlogged and infertile.

If the plant gets scrapped because of ZBSC's stir, we'll remain in the dumps GURVINDER SINGH Kisan Bachao Sangharsh Committee )

Development has stopped since notification in August 2008. Government should pay the market rate or scrap the plant; so that we can get on with life PA R A M J I T S I N G H Zamin Bachao Sangharsh Committee thing to survive on, but we have
It's been three years since the state government announced a thermal power plant to be set up with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) near Gidderbaha. The plant is still on paper, but for the villagers whose land ­ 2,000 acres -has been earmarked to be acquired, it has stagnated their economic and social growth. Residents of the villages -Thehri, Ghagga and Babania ­ have now constituted two groups, each with its own solution to the problem.

The Zamin Bachao Sangharsh Committee (ZBSC) has been on a dharna for the past five months on the Bathinda-Malout highway. It's demanding that the government pay the “actual market price“ for the land to be acquired, or pack up its project.

The pack-up demand is not agreeable to another group, the Kisan Bachao Sangharsh Committee (KBSC), which wants hastening of project work.
Comprised mostly of those farmers whose entire landholding earmarked for the plant is in waterlogged area, and thus rendered unfit for cultivation for most part of the year, this group's slogan is `Thermal Lagao Kisan Bachao'.

The group has also started a dharna. These farmers say the project will help develop the area as their land is unfit anyway.

It was on August 12, 2008 that the first notification (earmarking) of the land under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) was issued.

“We were ready to give our land for the project in 2008 at the price offered by the government. But now government is offering us Rs 15,000 less per acre. In 2008 they offered us Rs 21.6 lakh per acre, but documents show that the District Price Fixation Committee (DPFC) decided on Rs 21.45 lakh in the fresh assessment of December 2010,“ said Paramjit Singh Thehari, a member of the ZBSC.

“This, when in the past three years the value of real estate has increased by almost three time,“ said Varinder Pal Singh, another farmer who supports scrapping of the thermal power plant project now.

“We are no more like the owners of our land. There has been no increase in the annual rent for contract farming; we cannot apply for loan against land; our economic development has come to a halt since that day in August 2008. They should pay the market rate or announce to scrap the plant; so that we can get on with life,“ Paramjit said.

Documents the villagers got under the Right to Information Act (RTI) show that the government had notified the area as commercial in 2005.

“That naturally means we should get much more that what we are to get now,“ Varinder contended.

ZBSC members say the other group -the KBSC ­ is working on the directions of the government.

Gurvinder Singh of KBSC retorted, “We do not care what they think of us. Our land is waterlogged and infertile, whereas members of ZBSC have some fertile land that is to be acquired. They have something to survive on, but we have nothing,“ “We know that the government is paying less price for our land. But something is better than nothing. If the thermal plant gets shifted or scrapped because of ZBSC's stir, we will be ruined,“ he said.

The Zamin Bachao Sangharsh Committee members say the waterlogged part is only 500 acres of the 2,000 acres, and the rest is fertile land, “and is being acquired for peanuts“.