Farmers give 'ultimatum' to govt to denotify Dholera SIR

Farmers affected by the proposed Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) in Ahmedabad district have given a 15-day "ultimatum" to the state government to scrap its plan to develop the 940 sq km-area into an SIR zone.
The villagers have threatened to launch a fresh stir after a meeting scheduled on May 2, in case the government fails to denotify Dholera SIR, which affects 22 villages.
"Farmers met at Dholera yesterday to chalk out the next course of action against the government. We have given a 15-day ultimatum to the government to take action, after which we will launch another round of agitation," Sagar Rabari, general secretary of Khedut Samaj, a farmers' body organising the agitation, said.

Rabari said farmers have also demanded from the state government to construct a canal till Dholera, connecting Narmada main canal in a time-bound manner, so that 22 affected villages could be given irrigation water.
"As many as 920 square kilometres of area has been earmarked for the SIR region in Dholera, of which 40 per cent is government land, while five per cent land belongs to farmers," Rabari said.
Of this, 370 sq km of the project is under the coastal regulation zone (CRZ). No work on the development of the SIR has been taken yet, he said.

Dholera SIR is a part of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, a high impact industrial area to be developed alongside the railway freight corridor being developed with the aid of Japanese government.

Agitating farmers had earlier in 2014 moved the Gujarat High Court against the notification, challenging the legality of the SIR Act. The HC has asked the government to maintain status quo on the matter.
The state government was pushed on the back foot in 2014 after farmers protested against the land acquisition for the Hazira SIR, which included land from villages in Olpad and Chorasi talukas of Surat district. The government had to denotify the SIR.
In August 2013, the government was forced to denotify the Mandal-Becharji SIR in North Gujarat.