MP: Farmer grooves at collector’s office for a hearing on land dispute

It was ‘Ajab Singh ka gajab dance’ vouch local villagers in MP’s Harda. Farmer Ajab Singh Rajput from Handiya tehsil’s Rijgaon village left everyone surprised on Tuesday when he danced in front of the Harda collector to seek redressal to his grievances.

Updated on: Jan 20, 2016, 18:30:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Neeraj Santoshi, Bhopal/Harda

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It was ‘Ajab Singh ka gajab dance’ vouch local villagers in MP’s Harda. Farmer Ajab Singh Rajput from Handiya tehsil’s Rijgaon village left everyone surprised on Tuesday when he danced in front of the Harda collector to seek redressal to his grievances.

The farmer seeks attention of the collector by dancing at his office in Harda on Tuesday. (HT photo)

Singh has a running feud with his brothers over the share of ancestral land for the last few years. For long, the farmer had been visiting the collectorate for an amicable end to this matter but it was of no avail.

On Tuesday, Harda collector Srikant Banot was listening to grievances at the collectorate hall during his weekly public hearing. It was then Singh entered the hall and started dancing, taking Banot and other officials by surprise. The collector and other officials could not but smile at the impromptu act.

The farmer alleged that his name had been removed from ownership documents of nearly 29 acres ancestral land.

“I was so disturbed that I didn’t know what to do but dance. I am being deprived of my ancestral land and nobody is listening to me. We are six brothers and two sisters,” the 45-year old farmer told HT over phone.

Clarifying the episode, the district collector said Harda was a drought-hit district where relief had been provided to almost all the affected farmers barring those who have disputed land.

“The process for granting relief to this farmer can be started only after their dispute comes to an end. When the land is divided, he will get a document - ‘wrin pustika’ – having details of his land holding and other related issues. He has been trying to get the document so that he gets compensation. He is worried that he may not get the relief and that is why he indulged in such a gimmick,” Bannot said.

The collector added that he has instructed the tehsildar to look into the matter and start the process of dividing the land among the brothers so that they could get the relief.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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