Bardhan asks Sonia to shift Harayana high-tech city

New Delhi, Mar 16: Veteran Communist leader A B Bardhan has sought the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to prevent the Haryana government from acquiring farmers' land to build a high-tech city in Sonipat.

In a letter to Ms Gandhi, the Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary said the proposed high-tech city in Ginnaur, Sonipat would only benefit the elite at the cost of about 60,000 families.

The villagers or their Panchayats were not taken into confidence on the government's plan, Mr Bardhan said in a two-page letter while reminding Ms Gandhi of the UPA government's committment to strengthening agricultural production.

Not only farmers, but agricultural workers and others involved in agro-based activities like animal husbandry and dairy farming will also be displaced if the government goes ahead with the proposal, he said.

The fields spread out in 8,900 acres of ''highly fertile'' land have good irrigation facilities and the potential of three crops in a year, he added.

''I am a witness to the green belt with its great potential of surplus production in food grains, wheat, rice, cereals, vegetables and other crops,'' he said in the letter.

Terming the proposal as a ''dangerous proposition'', he said converting cultivable fertile land into a city for commercial purposes would lead to unemployment, destitution and desperation.

''Just to build a high tech city with cement, concrete and mortar etc, to benefit the elite who would compete for having a space there, while the farmers and other common people would be losers is not desirable,'' he said while seeking the shifting of the high-tech city.

UNI