Protesting farmers storm tehsil office, lock it in Manesar

Gurugram, June 28

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High drama prevailed at the HSIIDC tehsil office in Manesar today as hundreds of protesting farmers charged at the place and forcibly locked the office.

The farmers have long been protesting against the “low compensation” handed out to them for the acquisition of 1,810 acres in three villages Kasan, Kakrola and Sehrawan for the expansion of the IMT Manesar. The farmers said the land was acquired under the Deendayal Yojana.

“The government had fixed a compensation of Rs 56 lakh per acre for this, while the market rate of his land is Rs 11 crore per acre. This is a death warrant for all our future generations as this is all we have,” said one of the farmers.

They had aggressively protested last year in this regard, following which enhanced compensations were announced by CM Manohar Lal Khattar in December, but no formal notification had been done regarding the same.

It was in December that during his statement in the Assembly, the CM announced a new rate of compensation of Rs 2.67 crore per acre as opposed to the earlier rate of Rs 92 lakh per acre. The farmers held a mahapanchayat in this regard. Farm leaders Rakesh Tikait, Naveen Jaihind, along with AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta, reached the place and extended their support to the farmers.

The farmers have, in the past, held many protests and even threatened mass suicides over the matter. Out to issue an aggressive warning to the government, they marched to the tehsil office and locked it in the evening. Heavy police deployment was seen there and Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav had deputed a special team, headed by the ADC, to pacify them till the filing of this report.

Tikait said this was just the trailer for the state government. Meanwhile, sources said the enhanced compensation would be taken up at the forthcoming Cabinet meeting in July.