Farmers protest against land acquisition in Punjab

Hundreds of farmers in Punjabs Barnala District today protested against forceful acquisition of their lands by the State Government for an industrial project.

Barnala (Punjab), May 13 : Hundreds of farmers in Punjab's Barnala District today protested against forceful acquisition of their lands by the State Government for an industrial project.

Farmers of Dhaula, Fatehgarh Channa and Sanghera villages have demanded scrapping of the notification for land acquisition, which was issued by former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

"For the past 13-14 months, we have been struggling to save our land which is being forcefully taken away from us in Fatehgarh Channa. 376 acres of land across three villages is being acquired for the Trident Group," said Joginder Singh Khurana, State President of Bharatiya Kisan Union.Farmers also lament negligence by the present State Government headed by Parkash Singh Badal.

"Our demand is that the government should return back our land and if they are not returning it, then at least we should be compensated for it as per the current market rates. Badal had assured us that he would sort out the issue and will return our land. But the situation remains the same. We have lost all hopes from this government," said Roop Singh, a farmer whose 15 acres of land were taken by the government.

During the last 14 months, scores of farmers have been arrested and many injured in protest against the land acquisition.

In 2006, the State Government had issued a notification for acquisition of 376 acres of farmland in three villages of Barnala District for setting up of an industrial project of the Trident Group.

Trident is a major industrial group in the country dealing with yarn, hotels, chemicals, industries, marine projects etc.

In just a year, the Centre had approved nearly 400 Special Economic Zones (SEZs), and has received 304 other proposals from different State governments. All but 63 of the projects have been put on hold.

ANI