TeaThe Noida Authority’s office in Sector 6 has been closed for days now, with hundreds of angry farmers thronging its foyer, and disrupting civic services such as land registration and water and electricity complaints and queries.
As a protest against an ‘Occupy Authority Office’, farmers have gradually moved forward with complaints as old as 2011 over the past four days. First, he says, he lost his farm and now his house too in the flawed government land acquisition process.
The upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election has also started showing up at the protest site, with some women saying they will boycott the election and not vote.
Even before this week’s sit-in, the Noida Authority office has been partially inaccessible to residents due to the protests. ‘Flex board with slogans like’Ritu Maheshwari Noida Choro‘ (Ritu Maheshwari leave Noida) or ‘Solution:‘ (solution or cremation) erected at the protest site.
Brijpal Singh, a resident of Sector 52, had reached the Noida Authority regarding the matter related to the registry of the land, but it was told that the office premises have been closed after the farmers of 81 villages sat on a dharna.
Sub-divisional magistrate SC Mishra (public health) said the protest has caused disruption in services, which many people take advantage of personally at the Noida authority office.
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Problem
The farmers are demanding that 10 per cent residential land should be returned to them against the total land acquired from them for ‘development’ by the Noida Authority. While some have received compensation in the form of both money and land, most are yet to be compensated. So far, farmers have been given compensation of Rs 571 crore out of Rs 6,000 crore.
The farmers want 64.7 percent more compensation than what they have received so far, want to stop the old population settlement and irregular construction in the villages.
According to the Supreme Court of 2015 in judgment Savitri Devi vs State of UP, the court asked the Noida authority to follow up on the compensation. The protesters are demanding that the conditions be fulfilled.
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the protesters won’t budge
,Ours is not working. We are not giving our rights. We want that on whose terms the land was acquired, they should fulfill it. (Noida authority is not doing our job. We are not getting our entitlement. We just want the authority to fulfill the conditions under which it acquired the land from us),” says Sudhir Chauhan, who has been in the sector since September Opposing in 6.
Farmers have been protesting against the Noida Authority since September 1. But the dharna in front of the Sector 6 office started about 45 days ago, as the farmers were not happy with the response received from the authority.
Around 200 farmers from 81 villages of Noida and Greater Noida were camping outside the main administrative building of the authority on Wednesday.
The crowd of protesters increases every day after 10 a.m. and decreases in the evening, as some of them return home. However, most of the farmers have now started staying at night to support those who have been on hunger strike since Monday. Earlier, the farmers were allowing the Noida Authority officials to pass through and the sanitation workers were also allowed inside. Now the campus is off-limits to everyone.
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political push
Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav called the farmers and put his weight behind the movement. Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh also joined the protest on Monday. After Akhilesh Yadav’s call, 10 farmers announced that they would go on an indefinite fast to support their demands. Later on Tuesday, two more farmers joined him. Now 14 male and six female farmers are on hunger strike.
Sukhbir Yadav, founder president of Bharatiya Kisan Parishad said, “Our fast-unto-death will not end until the authority accepts our demands on our terms.” Yadav is leading the dharna.
Manju Chauhan of Shahpur village in Sector 128 says, “I won’t know until I’m done. We are also asking for a little – what is ours, they have come to take, (We will not go back until our demands are met. We are not begging. We are here to take our hay.)
(Edited by Prashant)