Farmers Pick Up Cudgels

The protest against power major Adani in villages near Chausra and surrounding villages of Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh is showing no signs of abating. At the centre of the storm is the company's proposed 1320-mega-watt power plant and a dam coming up on Pench River near a village here. Farmers and villagers have been up in arms for years against the forcible takeover of the land for the Adani project and allege a corporate-government nexus to deprive them of their farmlands and livelihoods.

"All acquisition is being done without even convening a meeting of the village leaders. Adani has even laid claim to many public roads and I am told that these have been sold by the government to Adani. How can the government sell what belongs to the public?" asks an indignant Aradhana Bhargava, chief of the women's wing of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (KSS), which is spearheading the stir against the power plants.

The other bone of contention is the major dam coming up on the Pench river to supply water to the plant. Protestors allege that the dam will affect nearly 31 villages (six villages may get fully submerged), besides depriving local farmers of irrigation water.

The root of this controversy goes back to 1987 when the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board (MEPB) acquired 750 acres of farm land at Rs 1,500 to Rs 10,000 per acre to set up a power plant. The promise was that farmers would be given jobs and free electricity within three years. But even after 25 years, MEPB failed to start the plant. Activists say that the land should ideally have been returned to the farmers who had continued tilling the fields in the meantime. Instead the land was sold to Adani for Rs 13.50 lakh per acre in 2010, allegedly without any fresh public hearing.

KSS leader Dr Sunilam expresses his anguish at the manner in which upcoming power projects are forcing farmers to stop sowing seeds in their farmlands now. He says, "They claim that they have all clearances. But that is a lie. We have endured life threatening attacks by goons. But the spirit of farmers is still strong. We will fight till we get justice.”

The fight for land and water is not new to the nation. The government's acquisition of land for projects has been facing protests from people's movements all over the country. The protests are against forcible acquisition of agricultural land, inappropriate compensation, ill-conceived rehabilitation or environmental concerns. While Posco, Nandigram, Bhatta Parsaul and Noida Extension protests have dominated newsprint, dozens of farmer groups are waging independent struggles over forcible acquisition of their fertile lands. As Mahabharata has indicated, land has always been the cause of epic wars. Now seems no different.