We have been cheated: Farmers
“I have 12 acres of irrigated land with 70 mango trees. This land and my home will be acquired for the Samruddhi corridor. I will become homeless and farmless. Officials took my consent offering huge amount of crop insurance. There are several people like me where uneducated women are cheated by the officials,” Godawari Ramchandra Mate, a 60-yearold woman, said telling rolling down her eyes.
When we reached Sindkhedraja tehsil of Buldhana district, it was raining with thunderstorm and lightening. There was no electricity at the village Vardali where we met some farmers. There are 40 habitats and all will be displaced by the corridor.
Farmers alongside the corridor all share the same story and the same feelings.
In Varud, another village in Sindkhedraja, where there will be an interchange, farmers requested a change of the location of interchange to another side of existing road and use forestland.
“We requested officials a lot to save our fertile land, but patwari or talathi (revenue employee at gram panchayat level) and revenue officers are not ready for it. Forest land is around 1200 Ha, but government may have plans to give this land to developers,” said Ganesh Mhaske.
Kunda Banana Waah from Vardali said that they took her “consent” by threatening to arrest her.
“Devendra Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari (Union minister for road transport) are businessmen and they are working as dalals (mediator) of the developers,” alleged Nanasaheb Palaskar from Palashi in Aurangabad tehsil.
“Notice of land measurement and survey numbers were published in Urdu newspaper and ‘Lokvijay’, another Marathi weekly, which has never been available at any newspaper stall. This was so because they don’t want farmers to be aware about the situation,” said Abdul Muji Shaikh Sultan alias Kalubhau from Palashi village. He said that though he is a Muslim, he can’t write or read Urdu as Marathi is his language of business.
Pradip Deshmukh from Dongaon in Buldhana district claimed that the then Buldhana collector, Vijay Jhade, and the managing director of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), Radheshyam Mopalwar, too, misguided farmers.
Deshmukh said Ready Reckon (RR) rate of Amravati division which had marked hike of more than 12% during 2013-14 and 2014-15, has shown just 6% hike by the revenue department. “Mopalwar had assured us we will get 3.75% compensation of the RR rate, and hence the RR rate was deliberately shown to have minimum increase,” said Deshmukh, adding, “it’s a big nexus. Talathi to Collector including tehsildar, land acquisition officers — all are involved.”
MSRDC has appointed communicators, private persons to convince farmers and these people meet farmers and convince them to give consent.
Sachin Todkar from Maliwada in Aurangabad said, “Communicator pretended to be MSRDC officer. One of the girls from the team was just 9th standard pass. They are cheating farmers.”
HV Argunde, deputy collector and administrator of MSRDC for Aurangabad, refuted all allegations. “The advertisement was given according to rotation system approved by the state government,” he said. He added that communicators are hired by MSRDC and they are working according to guidelines.
“Government has formulated a ratio to calculate compensation and each will get five times more the current valuation of the agricultural land. Farmers will get compensation for trees and wells too,” he said.