UP farmers attempt to march to Delhi, stopped at Noida

Noida: from different parts of Uttar Pradesh demanding adequate compensation for their lands acquired by the government arrived at the Noida-Delhi border on Monday on their protest march to the national capital.

Raising slogans of “Bol Kisan, Halla Bol”, the protesting farmers gathered at the Mahamaya flyover on the Dadri-Noida link road and began their march around 11:30 am.

The police had set up multiple barricades in view of the protest march that coincided with the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament.

Carrying banners and flags of various farmer groups, hundreds of protesters crossed the initial barricades erected by the Noida Police. While some climbed over the barricades, others pushed them.

They were finally stopped by police near Dalit Prerna Sthal on Noida Link Road, around a kilometre from the Chilla border, an entry point to Delhi, where senior police officers tried to pacify the protesting farmers.

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Shashikant, a member of the national executive of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) — an umbrella organisation of 12 farmers’ bodies — told PTI that the protest was organised under the aegis of the SKM’s Gautam Buddh Nagar unit.

“The SKM’s district chief Gangeshwar Dutt Sharma was arrested on Monday in a bid to defeat the movement but the leaders have decided to continue pressing for their just demands till the government relents,” he said.

The main demands of the farmers include the payment dues connected to land acquisition, as mandated by the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. The farmers have been paid only 33.3 per cent of the compensation amount, he added.

Shashikant said the Land Acquisition Act mandated allotting “10 per cent plots of all developed land” to farmers and claimed this provision had not been fulfilled.

The protest was called after Sunday’s negotiations between farmers and senior government officials at Gautam Buddh Nagar failed, he added.

Meanwhile, the SKM said in a release that it would hold protests all over Uttar Pradesh against “privatisation of electricity” on Wednesday.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union’s Agra district unit chief Rajveer Lawania said, “We are on alert. Some farmers from the Agra division were part of Monday’s protest in Noida. If needed, more will join the stir.”

“As of now barely, 100-odd farmers from Agra division took part in the protest but the numbers can increase if the demand for allocation of 10 per cent developed plots for farmers displaced by land acquisition, along with employment benefits and rehabilitation for children of landless farmers, are not met.”

Naresh Chaudhry, head of the Kisan Union Samyukt Morcha’s Amroha unit, told PTI on the phone from Delhi that the government was not paying the correct price for their lands. “We are demanding that the anomaly be corrected.”

Chaudhry, who was part of Monday’s stir, added that members of the Kisan Union Samyukt Morcha’s Amroha unit had returned after participating in the agitation.

“Our unit came back as we want to follow government rules and not disturb law and order. We are hopeful that the government would consider the just demands of the farmers,” he added.

In Bulandshahr, state chief of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sampoorna Bharat) Pawan Teotia said his unit also participated in the stir.

“Most farmers who are part of the Noida stir are from Noida itself. The demand is for allocating 10 per cent plots and 64.7 per cent compensation to the farmers affected due to acquisition,” he said.

A group of farmers from Punjab, led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, has called for a march towards Delhi on December 6. The group has been camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13.