Greater Noida farmers join on-going protest against authority

Farmers from Greater Noida extended support to their Noida counterparts, who are currently on a protest against the Noida authority. The farmers are seeking hiked

Farmers from Greater Noida extended support to their Noida counterparts, who are currently on a protest against the Noida authority. The farmers are seeking hiked land compensation, settlement of their abadi land issues and other benefits from the government.

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Farmers since Monday have been protesting outside the authority office, from morning to evening. They said the protest will continue until the authority address their issues.

The police Monday arrested 11 farmers, including Sukhbir Yadav, who was leading the protest, and sent them to Greater Noida’s Luksar jail.

“Earlier, the protest was only limited to Noida villages. But now after police’s high-handedness, farmers from Greater Noida too have joined the protest. The police should not have sent peaceful protesters to jail. The police’s move has angered the farmers as officials want to crush a justified agitation,” Ravinder Bhati, a farmer leader from Greater Noida, said.

Farmers are demanding hiked 64% land compensation, residential plots (10% of total land acquired), abadi settlement and other amenities. Members of Samajwadi Party performed a ‘yagya’ at the Sector 6 protest site on Friday.

“We gave up our land willingly for development of swanky residential, commercial and school buildings in the hopes that we will be part of this development. But now after 40 years, we have realised that the government cheated us with false promises. Now, if we build houses on our own land, the authority calls these houses illegal. Neither does the authority give us permission to build houses, nor does it allow us ownership rights on our old houses. What kind of development is this?” Charan Singh Rajput, a farmer from Magroli village, said.

One of the biggest issues that has angered farmers is that the authority has also acquired land on which some old farm houses are standing.

“The Gautam Budh Nagar administration and the Noida authority considers our old abadi land as their property as we cannot take loan or mortgage this property due to legal hurdles. The Noida authority never took steps to make our houses legal. Now, the authority wants to demolish these houses,” Sudesh Tyagi, another farmer, said.

The Noida authority said that it is talking to farmers. “We are trying to establish communication with farmers to settle their issues,” Santosh Upadhyay, OSD, Noida authority, said.