Gujarat to meet farmers to allay fears over a special investment region

Mandal SIR CEO to meet farmers in a village in Mandal taluka

Pankaj Patel, chief executive of Gujarat’s Mandal-Becharaji special investment region (SIR), is set to meet protesting farmers from villages in the region on Tuesday morning.

Patel said, “We are meeting farmers of the villages in the taluka tomorrow. The location is undecided, but it is likely to be Vithalapur. We plan to discuss the details of the development plan and explain it in details.” He added it was a routine process for government officials to visit all villages in a region where an SIR was planned, explain the plan and take feedback.

Meanwhile, farmers from 44 villages protesting the SIR in Ahmedabad district, have dropped their plan to visit Gandhinagar to stage a protest in front of Udyog Bhavan, which houses important offices. A farmer from the area said, “If the government is willing to come to talk, there is no point in taking an agitation to Gandhinagar.”

The farmers were protesting the proposed investment region, claiming it would have an impact on agriculture, animal husbandry and fodder.

“Farmers fear there would be a lot of land acquisition in the region if the SIR is developed. However, land is only taken for road and common facilities. Also, the owner is returned his land (which has now appreciated in value) at a proportionate basis in the survey number where he originally owned the plot,” Patel said, adding if anyone wanted to continue with agriculture, there wouldn’t be opposition to that.

Ajmalbhai Thakore, village sarpanch of Hansalpur, where Maruti Suzuki is building a plant, said, “The Mandal-Becharaji SIR authority has opened an office at Vithalapur (the site where Maruti has acquired additional land for expansion)...we are looking forward to meeting the senior official who would visit us tomorrow. We need to get our doubts cleared.”

Meanwhile, Patel claimed since the farmers had been informed of the SIR notification, only one official objection had been registered against the proposed SIR.