UP lone ranger’s protest to free land enters 22nd year

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Anti-corruption crusader Vijay Singh’s protest has earned him a place in record books, but has done little to bring him the result he desired.

On February 26, his protest entered its 22nd year and yet, Singh is nowhere near achieving his target of freeing about 4,000 bighas of public land in his village that has been in the possession of illegal grabbers since 1996. In his quest for justice, ‘Master’ Vijay Singh, then a school teacher, started a dharna at the Muzaffarnagar collectorate compound to release the ‘gram sabha’ land from the grabbers. The land in question is at village Chausana, now in district Shamli.

Singh said, “In 1996, the then commissioner of Meerut zone, HL Virdi, found all my allegations to be true but no proper action was initiated. Then, in 2002, the then ADM, CP Singh, initiated a probe, and in 2007, ADM Ajay Deep Singh also found my claims to be correct. Despite all that and the assurances I got at the district administration level, no action was ever taken.” In 2012, Singh went to meet the newly elected UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, but to no avail.

In the meantime, his long protest got him a place in different record books. So, for how long will he continue? The former school teacher has no answer.