UP land acquisition hurdle: Tribal leader wounded in police firing

Akku Karwar and a group of activists and locals were protesting forcible acquisition for proposed Kanhar Dam project

The police opened fire on a group of activists and locals protesting against the alleged “forcible acquisition” of land for the proposed Kanhar Dam project in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. A local tribal leader, Akku Kharwar, and others, including women, were injured in the incident. Kharwar is undergoing treatment at a Varanasi hospital. Several others, including women, sustained injuries.

Dudhi sub divisional magistrate (SDM) G S Singh told Business Standard about six policemen were also wounded in the violence. He claimed the protesters resorted to violence, which led to the firing. “Senior district and police officials, who arrived at the spot, held talks with the protesters to defuse the crisis,” he said.

UP minister Rajendra Chaudhary told Business Standard an investigation would be conducted and the guilty taken to task.

The dam project was conceived in the mid-1970s to provide water for irrigation to Dudhi and Robertsganj in Sonbhadra. However, the project could not take off, due to resistance from the locals.

Two local organisations, Kanhar Bachao Andolan and Kanhar Baandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, have been spearheading an agitation and had filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court.

About 111 villages would be affected by the project, spanning Sonbhadra and some areas of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand as well, All India Union of Forest Working People deputy general secretary Roma told Business Standard over telephone.

She claimed it was a blatant violation of the standing provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, which said any land acquired would revert to the original owners if the project did not start within a stipulated time frame.

Although, the project lapsed in due course, it was sought to be revived during the previous Mayawati regime in 2011, she said.Since December 2014, the process of land acquisition and construction on the project had started surreptitiously, even in the face of opposition from the locals and activists, who maintain the project was illegal since it had not been approved by the National Green Tribunal.

On April 10, a protest march took place in Sonbhadra. The trouble started on Tuesday, when a group of over 100 locals started to gather at the site on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Bhimrao Ambedkar. Malik alleged the police had opened fire on peaceful protesters without giving advance warning.

The incident has again highlighted the complex nature of land acquisition for development projects. Only last month, the UP government had claimed to have simplified the processes for major infrastructure projects.

A state Cabinet meeting had approved a policy for direct negotiation between the seller and buyer for land acquisition. This was seen as aimed at blunting the prospective opposition parties’ charge of forceful land acquisition in the state, especially since a mega Agra-Lucknow Expressway project is underway.

However, Tuesday’s incident showed while the policy is yet to percolate to the ground, the local administration has still not learnt to deal with such issues with required sensitivity.

Meanwhile, there was tension at the site of the incident and a strong group of locals and tribals had descended to register their protest. Politicians belonging to opposition parties had also arrived at the site.

“The ruling Samajwadi Party claims to champion the cause of the poor farmers and has been quite vocal against the proposed amendments in the Land Acquisition Act by the Narendra Modi government. This is purely doublespeak, considering the incident in Sonebhadra,” Roma noted.