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Noida officials, police halt house demolition drive midway as farmers protest
According to the authority, it had “acquired the land for planned development there” and the house needed to be demolished. Farmer Anil Pal said the land was his ancestral property
During a demolition drive in Noida’s Gejha village on Friday, the Noida authority’s anti-encroachment team and police personnel faced strong resistance from the local farmers, and they were forced to leave the site even without completing the drive, said officials.
The Noida authority’s land department and a team of local police reached Gejha village on Friday, to demolish a house built by one farmer -- Anil Pal -- on a nearly 700-square-metre of the land.
According to the authority, it had “acquired the land for planned development there” and the house needed to be demolished. The team reached the area around 10am on Friday and demolished four rooms, and other structures built to keep fodder for animals, on the land.
Pal, however, said that it was his “ancestral land and it belonged to him”. He and his family members resisted the demolition, and soon other local farmers joined them and started shouting slogans against the Noida authority.
“This is my ancestral land. It does not belong to the Noida authority. It is trying to acquire my land forcefully,” said Pal.
Around 11:30am, farmer leaders from Bhartiya Kisan Parishad (BKP) reached the site in protest.
Seeing that the situation was getting heated up, the team left the site, and police filed an FIR against Pal in the local police station.
Reacting to this, the angry farmers at the spot started rebuilding the already demolished structures there. “We started reconstructing the house of the farmer, who is the rightful owner of the land and the house. We have reconstructed walls, and the farmer’s house will be reconstructed as before at the earliest... The Noida authority is playing with fire, it is destroying the lives of farmers... We have decided to protest against the authority at Noida Sector 6 from Monday, to protect the rights of the farmers,” said Ashok Chauhan, a BKP leader.
BKP has been protesting against the Noida authority since September 1 this year, at a community centre in Harola village near Sector 6, and also disrupting construction work at different sites, led by the Noida authority. “Now, we will start protesting right in front of the gate of the authority’s office... The authority officials are not in the mood to work for the farmers’ welfare,” said Sukhbir Yadav, BKP president.
Meanwhile, the Noida authority said on Friday that it will visit the site again and remove the farmer’s illegal structure to free the government land. “We demolished the structure because it is built on government land. It does not belong to Pal. If the structure is being rebuilt, action will be taken against the people concerned, according to the law. We took a lawful action against the famer, and we will continue to do so. We will inquire into Pal’s claims and act accordingly,” said Praveen Mishra, additional chief executive officer of the Noida authority.
