Farmer to hold 'pakka morcha' in Rajpura

Up in arms against the Punjab Government and the Patiala administration over the issue of subletting 533 acres allocated for setting up of an industrial corridor over three decades ago in Rajpura, farm bodies have decided to hold a ‘pakka morcha’ at the site on September 29.

Farmer leaders claimed that the company which claimed to have set up an industrial corridor had further given the land to a “coloniser”, who was planning to reap huge profits by selling the land in the form of small commercial and residential plots.

“The land was acquired from marginal farmers for Rs 1.45 lakh per acre in 1994, with a promise that it would bring employment for the villagers. Now, the same land is expected to fetch Rs 5 crore per acre, a 500 per cent profit,” said farmer leader Prem Singh Bhangu.

Under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), farm organisations — including the All India Kisan Federation;  Krantikari Kisan Union, Punjab; Bharti Kisan Union, Rajewal; All India Kisan Sabha, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, All India Kisan Sabha (CPM), Bharti Kisan Union, Lakhowal; and Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Noujawan Sabha — convened at Patiala to intensify their agitation.

Farmer leaders said farmers would stage a ‘pakka morcha’ on the site on September 29, and would end the protest only after the land was returned to farmers.

Bhangu said 1,119 acres of land from eight villages near Rajpura was acquired in 1994 to establish an industrial estate. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on October 14, 1993, between a private entity and the Punjab Government stipulated that the land would be returned if the project was not established within 10 years.

Despite this, only a chemical unit was set up on 98 acres, leaving the rest of the land unused. As many as 488 acres were notified. The MoU of the 533 acres expired in 2003, but the state government extended it for ten years in 2011, and again for three years in 2021, he added.

With the latest extension ending on October 4 and no significant development on the land, farmers have demanded the return of the unused 533 acres, citing the new Land Acquisition Act, 2013.

Section 101 of the act mandates the return of land to the original owners, if it remained unused for five years.

Bhangu claimed that as the MoU was to expire on October 4, the company had handed over the land to a “coloniser” and builder, and was planning to sell plots, which was not legally permissible as the land was given for establishing an industrial unit.