Maitreya project: Farmers welcome state cabinet decision, but will continue marathon protest

Agitating farmers have welcomed the state cabinet’s decisions to cancel the memorandum of understanding with the Maitreya Project Trust for the Maitreya Buddha project

Agitating farmers have welcomed the state cabinet’s decisions to cancel the memorandum of understanding with the Maitreya Project Trust for the Maitreya Buddha project in Kushinagar district of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

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The farmers have been staging what is described as the country’s longest dharna (sit-in), which entered 4,531 days on Monday, against acquisition of land for the same project.

The farmers, however, said they would continue their dharna till the state government issued an order to annual the notification for acquisition of 600-acre agricultural land for the project.

The farmers have been on the war path for over decade under the banner of the Bhoomi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti. Samiti leader Govardhan Gaur said the farmers opposing the project welcomed the cabinet decision.

People were waiting for launch of Buddha project since 2003 when the then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in UP had signed an MoU with Maitreya Project Trust for building a 500-feet bronze statue of Maitreya Buddha in Kushinagar, where Buddha attained mahaparinirvana, he said.

The state government, which had announced it would complete the project within two years, had issued a notification for acquisition of 800-acre land for the project at the time. Along with the statue, an educational institute, hospital, meditation pavilion, park, pond, Buddha Vihar and guest house were to be established as part of the project.

As implementation of the project kept getting delayed, farmers launched a movement against acquisition of their agricultural land, he said.

Neverthless, acquisition of land for the project continued under the Mayawati government (2003), Mulayam Singh Yadav government (2003-07), Mayawati government (2007-12) and the Akhilesh Yadav government (2012- 17). On December 13, 2013, the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had laid the foundation of the project. The acquisition of land and payment of compensation also continued after formation of the BJP government in 2017 as did the protests, the farmers’ leader said.

The state government paid compensation to farmers for acquisition of 202-acre land and prohibited construction work on the remaining 600-acre land.

The farmers of seven villages, Sabya, Anrudhwa, Siswa, Belwa Palakdhari Singh, Kasya, Bishunpur Bindwalia and Dumri Tappa Mainpur, who have received notices for acquisition of their land, have joined the dharna at Siswa Mahanth crossing on the Kushinagar- Deoria highway.

Rajnikant Mani Tripathi, BJP MLA from Kushinagar, said, “I have raised the issue with chief minister Yogi Adityanath regarding delay in the project. I told the chief minister that no work for installation of the statue or construction of other projects was done by the Maitreya Trust whereas the farmers were a harassed lot.”

“I urged the CM that, along with developing the Buddhist circuit under the tourism department, the state government should set up a medical college and an engineering college on the 200-acre land allotted for the project.

The chief minister sought a report from the Kushinagar DM and the director, culture department, who informed the state government about the ground reality.

On the basis of this report by government officers, the chief minister decided to cancel the MoU with the Maitreya Project Trust, Tripathi said.

Energy minister Shrikant Sharma, who is also the UP government’s spokesman, said the state government had directed the UP tourism department to prepare a detailed report for development of the Integrated Buddhist Circuit.

A spokesperson for the Maitreya Project Trust, who did not wish to be named, said the state government’s decision had been passed on to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual head of the project.

Ravi Shankar, the project engineer, said since a majority of the trust members were outside the state, they were not aware of the state government’s decision.