Wrestlers take off shirts, join farmers’ protest in Noida over land compensation issue

To register their protest, the wrestlers took off their shirts and shouted slogans against the authority, which, they alleged, failed to distribute land compensation as promised and hand over residential plots to farmers, whose land had been acquired for developmental projects since 1976.

Around 2,000 farmers on Wednesday protested against officials of the Noida authority, demanding better compensation for their land and settlement of their Abadi (residential) land disputes. The protest had begun on Tuesday.

To register their protest, the wrestlers took off their shirts and shouted slogans against the Noida authority. (Sunil Ghosh / HT Photo)

Over 100 wrestlers, from Sarfabad, Sorkha and Bahlolpur villages, among other, joined the farmers’ protest on Wednesday.

To register their protest, the wrestlers took off their shirts and shouted slogans against the authority, which, they alleged, failed to distribute land compensation as promised and hand over residential plots to farmers, whose land had been acquired for developmental projects since 1976, when the Noida city was established. The protesters said they will continue with their agitation on Thursday, at the authority’s Sector 6 office.

Meanwhile, traffic on Udyog Marg and internal roads in the area was disrupted due to the protest.

Officials said traffic is likely to be disrupted on Thursday as well.

“We will continue our protest until senior officials of the authority come out of their offices and make announcements with regard to our demands. We will not have a meeting with officials inside the office. They called us for a meeting but we refused because we want officials to come out and make an announcement that they accept our demands,” Sukhbir Pahalwan, a wrestling trainer who was leading the protest, said.

Farmers they have built houses on their land located at nearby villages. The authority wants to demolish some of the houses built on the land the farmers did not obtain permission for, before construction of houses.

“The authority said the houses on Abadi land in our villages are unauthorised. The authority needs to stop this practice of saying that our houses are illegal. They will have to stop issuing notices to our houses. The authority should start distribution of remaining land compensation, and an area equal to 10% of the acquired land should be allotted to each farmer for residential purposes. We will continue to protest if officials do not accept our demands,” Mangeram Yadav, a farmer from Sorkha, said.

Officials of the Noida authority were not available for comment despite repeated attempts.