Agra farmers write petition in blood

AGRA - Agitating farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district Wednesday wrote a petition in their blood to protest acquisition of their lands for townships along the 165-km Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway.

The farmers plan to give the petition to senior police and administrative officials for forwarding it to President Pratibha Patil and Uttar Pradesh Governor B.L. Joshi.

The agitators staged a sit-in at the Chalesar village in Etmadpur tehsil of Agra district and wrote the petition as part of their on-going protest.

Manoj Sharma, a member of the steering committee spearheading the protest against acquisition of agricultural lands for townships, told IANS: “Farmers used their blood to write the petition expressing deep concern and anger against forcible acquisition of lands.”

Meanwhile, a farmers’ struggle committee announced a boycott of all products of the Jaypee group, which is developing the expressway and townships along it.

The angry farmers made a bonfire of cement bags of the group’s company Tuesday. “Anyone who stays in the Jaypee Hotel (in Agra owned by the developer), would not be allowed to address meetings here,” the committee said in a press statement.

The farmers in the Etmadpur tehsil have largely rejected the government’s proposal to raise the compensation rate to Rs.580 per sq metre from Rs.446 per sq metre.

The protest began with a demand for parity in rates of compensation paid to farmers in Greater Noida, but now the focus has shifted to opposition to townships planned along the expressway at five different points, for which 2,500 hectares of land is being acquired in five blocs of 500 hectares each.

Almost all political rivals of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party have supported the farmers’ demand.

Two farmers and a policeman were killed and a dozen other people injured Aug 14, in the clashes between the police and protesters in Tappal village of Aligarh district following the arrest of a local farmers’ leader who was spearheading a three-day demonstration.