Farmers in Nagpur have threatened to commit suicide if their demand of adequate compensation for their lands acquired by the State government for a cargo hub project is not met.
Nagpur, (Maharashtra), Aug 26 : Farmers in Nagpur have threatened to commit suicide if their demand of 'adequate' compensation for their lands acquired by the State government for a cargo hub project is not met.
Farmers in Shipangaon, one of the 14 villages with a population of about0,000 in the district say the compensation package offered by the government was hardly adequate.
"I have received no money for my land", said Shamrao Sambare, a farmer whose land was also acquired, and narrated how the officials chase him and others away from their field.
"I want to hang myself to death," he says in frustration after being unable to get any monetary compensation for his acquired land.
The state government has acquired land in 14 villages in the Nagpur district for 720 million dollar cargo hub project that will be spread over 2,556 hectares.
With most or little land to till, most farmers in the village are forced to work as daily wage labourers and women as domestic helps.
Hundreds of farmers and women folk in the village have tonsured their heads as a mark of protest.
Project officials said farmers have nothing against the project and that they are demanding more compensation.
"It is for the Government to decide and I hope it takes a decision in this matter soon," said S. V. Chahande, Chief Engineer, Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation Limited.
According to the project officials, around eighteen crores of rupees have been paid in compensation.
The issue of land acquisition has brought farmers and state governments in confrontation on several occasions in the recent past.
Widespread violence in March over a proposed industrial hub in Nandigram inest Bengal made the state government shelve the project and the Centre started re-evaluating its land acquisition policy.
In April, Centre ended a two-month freeze on SEZ (Special Economic Zones) approvals, breathing new life into plans for large tax-free enclaves that ran into trouble over controversial purchases of farmland.
On April 5, a panel of ministers set up to look into problems related to all aspects of SEZs and recommended that the SEZ entrepreneurs themselves acquire farmland and settle compensation and rehabilitation issues with the landowners while the government would just act as a facilitator.
It also capped the maximum land area for the multi-product tax-free zones at 5,000 hectares.
ANI