Farmers’ stir spreads to Agra, Aligarh & Mathura

Lucknow/ Greater Noida, May 8
Sparks of the farmers’ violence in Greater Noida today reached Agra and Aligarh where the protesting villagers blocked the highway and set the camp office and vehicles of a private builder on fire.
Four policemen were injured in Chaugaan village in Agra when farmers clashed with the police demanding higher compensation for their land acquired for the Yamuna Expressway.
“Four policemen were injured when farmers turned violent during a protest and indulged into arson,” Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal said in Lucknow.
Enraged protesters also set afire a camp office of Jaypee Group, a construction company. Incidentally, the company is the main beneficiary of the land being acquired for the project.
Farmers in Tappal in Aligarh district, which had been the epicenter of the farmers protest in August 2010, also took to the streets torching vehicles and blocking the national highway.
The area remained tense with heavy police presence. Authorities have clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.
The decision of the state government to announce a Rs 50,000 award for the arrest of Sarvdaliya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti head Manveer Singh Tewatia for allegedly inciting the agitators reportedly angered Agra and Aligarh farmers.
Addressing the media, UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said the fresh incidents of violence were unrelated to the land compensation issue. Blaming the Opposition for fuelling the crisis, he said the parties were politicising the issue as part of their strategy to create the law and order trouble in the state.
With one more villager succumbing to injuries, the toll in Greater Noida violence has now mounted to four. The fourth victim was identified as Kalu.
Greater Noida’s District Magistrate, Deepak Aggarwal, who suffered a bullet injury in his leg, and SSP SN Singh, who was hit in the stone-pelting, were still recuperating.
There were reports of the state government considering transfer of some senior police officers but the district police was tight-lipped on the issue.
Meanwhile, taking no chances, the state government has turned the whole area of Bhatta-Prasaul into a virtual cantonment with heavy deployment of police personnel.
The agitation in the area began in January this year, after several hundred farmers, led by Tewatia, staged a dharna near Parsaul, demanding better compensation for their land acquired by the UP Government for the Rs 9,739-crore Yamuna Expressway project.
Yakatpur village pradhan Ravinder Singh said on March 14 the villagers received a letter from authorities for land acquisition. “We sent a letter back saying that we are not willing to sell our land”, Singh claimed. On March 16, the government illegally acquired the Yakutpur land on paper, he alleged.
“The villagers are not happy at way the authorities have treated them,” said Mahinder Singh, a resident of Bhatta Parsaul. Om Prakash, a farmer said, “The situation will only get worse now. The administration will again try to crush the agitation by attacking us.”