Lucknow, May 29 (IANS) Even as the Mayawati administration is grappling with the farmers’ agitation in Bhatta and Parsaul villages of Greater Noida, a large group of farmers has risen up in arms against the acquisition of agricultural land in Chandauli district at the other end of Uttar Pradesh.
Agitated farmers allegedly held the local sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and police circle officer captive for nearly the whole of Saturday as a mark of protest against the proposed acquisition of 121 hectares in Katesar village for building ‘New Kashi’ city – a parallel development to Varanasi in the neighbourhood.
However, the officials Sunday denied they were held hostage by the farmers.
‘We were only negotiating with the farmers and since the talks went on for the whole day, a false impression was created that the circle officer and I were held captive by them,’ SDM Ram Ashray Singh told IANS over telephone from Katesar.
The farmers, hundreds of whom were staging a sit-in on the main highway along the village Sunday, however insisted that they had actually held the officials captive when the two came down to hold talks with the farmers.
‘In fact, the SDM and CO managed to escape from our custody under some pretext, otherwise they would have still been with us,’ claimed Subhash Singh, a local leader of the farmers.
Another prominent farmer, Dina Nath told reporters in the village that they ‘had no choice but to keep the two officials in their custody because the administration is just out to grab our agricultural land’.
He asserted that they will oppose the acquisition with all their strength, terming it a question of our livelihood’.
‘Why is the government only after agricultural land of farmers? Why can’t they acquire wastelands and non-agricultural land for developing towns and industries?’ he wondered.
Chandauli, on the state’s border with Bihar, is around 350 km from Lucknow. It was earlier part of the Varanasi district.
