Green Earth Movement

Indian farmers vow to fight land seizures

Ahmedabad:  Thousands of farmers in Gujarat are up in arms over attempts by the state government to "steal" their land for commercial purposes, saying they will be left homeless and without livelihoods.

The western state, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People’s Party) intends to establish a Special Investment Region (SIR) near the commercial city of Ahmedabad, covering over 50,000 hectares of arable land.

“We are not interested in giving up our land. It’s fertile with river water available in the area, meaning we can now grow three crops a year. We want to remain as famers. We don't want industry here," said Dinesh Rabari, one of 10,000 farmers at a protest in the state capital Gandhi Nagar on Tuesday.

The SIR project is the brainchild of the state's controversial chief minister Narendra Modi, who says he wants to attract investment to the state. But farmers say it will adversely affect as many as 100,000 people living in 44 villages in three districts.

The farmers say a state law, enacted in 2009, requires them to hand over 40 percent of their land to the government without compensation, while the remaining 60 percent should be sold at current open market rates.

They claim that leaves them with little or no chance of buying land elsewhere to replace what they have lost. "We will give our lives, but not our land," the protesters shouted at Tuesday’s protest, vowing to resist the acquisition plan no matter what the cost.

Laljibhai Desai, a protest organizer, said the farmers will physically prevent officials entering their villages to take their land. He also announced plans for another rally in the state capital on August 9.

Jimmy Dabhi, research director of St Xavier’s non-formal education society, which is part of a growing coalition supporting the farmers, told ucanews.com the government scheme would only help a few people. “A large number of farmers would lose everything. Unskilled farmers, particularly Dalits [lower castes], will lose their livelihoods,” he said.

Source: ucanews.com

"The decision will come anytime now. Reactor is a safe reactor... no question about it... it is designed with safety features. It depends on the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to examine the test results and decide," R. Chidambaram told reporters on the sidelines of the 120th birth anniversary of P.C. Mahalanobis at the Indian Statistical Institute here.

"The job of the regulatory board is to examine everything they do. Nuclear Power Corp gives the results and regulatory board decides when to give the go ahead depending whether further tests are necessary or not," Chidambaram said.

He also stressed on the need to convey to common people the statistical estimate of the safety of nuclear establishments.

"For all practical purposes, nuclear power is safe. Common people have difficulty in understanding probabilistic safety assessment and analysis. India has an excellent safety record... with so many years in operation... absolutely clean safety record," the scientist added.

Observing that there could be no compromise on safety, the Supreme Court recently lashed out at the Tamil Nadu government for being lethargic in putting in place a plan for the evacuation of people in the event of an accident at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.

The apex court frowned at the attitude of the state government while hearing a petition seeking to restrain the central government from operationalising KNPP-I and II in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district.

The petition said that before operationalising the units, the safety measures, including 17 recommended by a task force set up by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), should be put in place.

India's atomic power plant operator, NPCIL, is building two 1,000 MW reactors with Russian help at Kudankulam since 2001.

Villagers under the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy banner have been opposing the project for the past two years, fearing for their safety, especially since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan in March 2011.

B Parameshwar Ganiga and Dakshayani couple from Kundapur always had interest in farming activity. Failing to make much headway in this field because of the compulsions of Ganiga’s job all these years, they have now embraced farming as a profession, in their retired life.

After buying about eight acres of land at Kundabarandadi near Alur, about 20 km away from the taluk headquarters, the couple has undertaken cultivation by following Dapog method, which involves transplantation by following mat method to raise seedlings.

Under this system, paddy seeds are soaked for a period of 36 hours like in nursery. Thereafter, the seeds are packed in gunny bags, and heavy objects are placed on them. This process requires about two and half days. A 20x5 feet mat is required to follow this method. This mat can be spread either on plain land or concreted ground.

On this mat, a one-inch layer of sifted soil from the fields, mixed with organic manure

This method is cost effective. Because a mat of the above measurement requires about six kg seed. Seedlings grown here can be transplanted in about 50 cents of farmland. Once the seedlings are ready, the mat is cut in pieces of 2.5x1 ft measurement by using rice transplanter machine. These pieces are then placed into the machine which then transplants these seedlings in the fields.

In the above system, between Rs 1,000 to 1,500 is spent on soil, manure, seeds, labour charges etc per a single mat of seedlings as above. Ganiga hired transplanter machine from Timmanna Hegde, who has won the Best Farmer Award for 2012, besides Dwarakanath Extensive Farmer Award. Ganiga was also by Hegde in conducting other farming activities.

Progressive farmer, Timmanna Hegde, says that farming as an occupation would have died in the region but for mat system of transplantation and Sri farming system. He notes that the people are increasingly abandoning the family occupation of agriculture. “The government needs to extend support to the new systems of cultivation. As there are problems in supply of rice transplanters and their spare parts, the government should take steps to address these problems. The previous government was sanctioning a subsidy of Rs 1,000 per acre for agriculture conducted through transplanters. I am not aware about the policy of the new government,” he says.

“We always had interest in farming activity. In our retired life, we have adopted this activity. This is our first year in agriculture. In the coming years, we plan to buy our own transplanter and a small tractor. We also have plans to raise rabi crop by November end this year,” say Parameshwar Ganiga and his wife, Dakshayini.