BJP seeks Governor's intervention to halt farm land acquisition

Chandigarh, Apr 11 (UNI) The BJP today demanded intervention of Punjab Governor Gen (Retd) S F Rodrigues into the acquisition of agricultural land in three villages of Sangrur district by the state government for Trident Group of Industries as several of the farmers were not willing to sell their land.

Following the police came charge on the agitated farmers from Fatehgarh Chhanna, Dhaula and Shanghera villages during the 'forcible' acquisition of their land last week, Punjab BJP delegation led by state unit president Avinash Rai Khanna today submitted a memorandum to the Governor to intervene in the matter imemdiately so that the land of the farmers could be saved.

''The fact is that the concerned farmers are not willing to sell their fertile land because they do not have any alternative source of income,'' the BJP leaders said in the memorandum, further alleging that the Amarinder Singh government was hand-in-glove with the Trident Group to grab agricultural land.

The authorities were in the process of forcibly acquiring 376 acres falling in the revenue estate of the three said villages, while only a handful of the land holders had under compulsion agreed to sell their land which was only 50 acres, the memorandum stated.

The rest of the farmers ''The present government is not budging an inch from its adamant attitude to acquire this land and have even resorted to lathi charge on the farmers, and the incident was widely reported in the media,'' the memorandum stated.

It was also pointed out in the communique to the Governor that the company with the patronisation of the government had harvested the wheat crop of the farmers and dumped stones and crushers and sand in order to make the land unfit for agriculture.

The BJP leaders also pointed out in the memorandum that the industry should be set up on a lesser fertile land available in Punjab and elsewhere in the country and that the fertile land should be retained for agriculture atthis juncture when we were importing wheat from abroad.

Besides Mr Khanna, the BJP office bearers who submitted the memorandum to the Governor at Punjab Raj Bhawan included BJP national secretary Harjit Singh Grewal, the party's Kisan Morcha national executive member Sukhminder Pal Singh Grewal.

They were accompanied by the delegation of the 'Kisan Ujara Action Committee' which was constituted byteh farmers of the three affected villages to stop the land acquisition there.

It may be recalled that the farners body hadalso moved teh Punjab and Haryana High Court against the land acqisition by tehTrident Groupof ndustries, following which the court had sent noticesto the Punjab goverment and the Trident Group. The next date of hearing of thecase is May two.

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