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Farmers protest against cow sanctuary in Muz’nagar
The protesting farmers, who accused the administration of acquiring their agriculture land, said they would not allow this and so they were sitting on dharna for the past five days.
MEERUT In protest against construction of Uttar Pradesh’s first cow sanctuary in Megha Chandan village of Muzaffarnagar district, the farmers there are staging a dharna .
The protesting farmers, who accused the administration of acquiring their agriculture land, said they would not allow this and so they were sitting on dharna for the past five days.
They have called a panchayat on Sunday (January 22) to raise the issue and to seek guidance for continuing the protest to protect their land.
The state government has approved the project which was initiated by union minister and MP from Muzaffarnagar Sanjeev Baliyan. The proposed cow sanctuary in Megha Chandan village will provide shelter to over 5,000 cows.
Speaking to HT on phone, Sanjeev Baliyan said that the project was the first of its kind and accused his opponents for deliberately creating hurdles to ruin it. The minister claimed that the proposed land for the sanctuary belonged to the government as per records. Years ago, it was given to a few farmers by the then gram pradhans in violation of rules. “Only those lands are being acquired which belong to the government as per the revenue record,” said Baliyan.
However, BKU’s in Muzaffarnagar unit president Yogesh Sharma claimed that many protesting farmers had proof of legal registry of the land, so they were protesting against officials’ attempt to acquire their land.
Sharma said that the officials could construct multiple ‘ gaushalas’ ( cow shelters) in the district on government land but would not be allowed to acquire farmers’ land without their consent.
He said that the BKU would continue its fight against atrocities on farmers and demanded that officials should listen to their grievances to resolve the issue amicably.
