Farmers to oppose LIDA in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow, July 15: A Nandigram is in the making in Uttar Pradesh capital too as the farmers are gearing up for a long drawn battle against the acquisition of 2,000 hectares of land for the Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA).

The farmers have formed an action committee to spearhead the battle against the acquisition of their land and they have also sent SOS to the Bhartiya Kisan Union Chief Mahendra Singh Tiakit to lead their agitation.

The state government has sanctioned Rs 16 crore for the LIDA in current fiscal to be utilised for the payment of compensation to the farmers for their land. In first phase only 630 hectares of land of only four villages is being acquired.

The UP government has deposited Rs 16 crore with the district magistrate of Lucknow for the payment of compensation of land. The previous Samajwadi Party (SP) led Mulayam Singh Yadav government in March 2005, had announced to set up LIDA on Lucknow-Kanpur National Highway for attracting investment in central UP. The SP government had mooted the idea of promoting an industrial development authority to be developed on the lines of NOIDA and Greater NOIDA under the provisions of the 'UP Industrial Area Development Authority Act 1976'.

The idea of LIDA could not proceed further due to the strong protest by the farmers and also due to the agitation by the farmers of Dadri led by V P Singh. The villagers of Lucknow had hoped that after ouster of SP in the assembly polls, Mayawati government would scrap the LIDA. But LIDA still remains priority for the BSP government.

Official sources said here that the HUDCO has sanctioned the loan for the LIDA and has also released the first tranche of Rs 73 crore.

According to the governments estimates the total cost of the land to be acquired is estimated to be Rs 120 crore. ''All plots of land to be acquired in four villages have been identified along with their title holders and within next one week the notification for acquisition will be issued by the district magistrate'', said Amitabh Prakash, ADM Land Acquisition, Lucknow district.

The elected Pradhans of the four villages maintain that no farmers would agree to part with the land for a paltry compensation of Rs 2.5 Lakh per bigha of land. Santosh Yadav of Kuroni village said the farmers of his village would not settle compensation of less than Rs 25 lakh per bigha.

Moreover, during the assembly election in May last the BSP leaders had promised us to pay compensation at the rate of Rs 35 lakh per bigha. He added now the time has come for the BSP government to fulfill its promise.

State government is however upbeat about the LIDA. ''New authority would go a long way in development of the infrastructure of global standards in Central UP as the new institutional framework is being put in place for the development,'' said an official of the Udyog Bandhu, adding that ''Kanpur is already is a big industrial center having largest number of tanneries producing quality leather which is giving competition in the international market''.

''No other place in UP has the infrastructure facilities as available in NOIDA, greater NOIDA and Ghaziabad, resulting in entire investment is centered in these areas ever since the economic reforms were unleashed in 1991,'' said a senior official of the state industries department. He added most of the investors interested in UP, were attracted towards NOIDA and greater NOIDA as they found their investment more secure and productive due to better infrastructure and other amenities needed for an industry.

Earlier in 1985, during the Congress regime 'Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority' (GIDA) was set up in Gorakhpur, followed by Satharia Industrial Development Authority (SIDA) in Jaunpur district. Both are in industrially backward region of eastern UP. Both GIDA and SIDA remained a non-starter largely due to power shortage and lack of adequate infrastructure.

UNI