Lucknow:
It was, for Uttar Pradesh, a Kodak moment. A group of 60 farmers pulled into the UP Assembly in a Volvo and were greeted by Chief Minister Mayawati who spent the afternoon with them.
Mayawati's attempt to make nice comes after four people were killed during a weekend in May when farmers and the police opened fire in the villages of Bhatta and Parsaul in Greater Noida. Farmers were upset over their land being acquired for public projects and then being sold to real estate companies after a considerable mark-up by the government. The shape of the protest shifted when Rahul Gandhi spent the day with farmers and was arrested by the state government before being led back across the border to Delhi. Mayawati fumed as Mr Gandhi walked away with headlines and the apparent goodwill of many families that he encountered.
Stung, Mayawati today announced a whole new policy on land acquisition. "The government will no longer acquire land from farmers. It will just act as a facilitator," she clarified. So commercial developers will have to talk directly to farmers whose land they want and work out the compensation with them. If 70 per cent of the farmers in an area don't want to hand over their land, the state government will consider cancelling the project being developed by real the estate company. And if a group of farmers don't want to sell, they will be given 23 per cent of the land after it's been commercially developed.
However, the farmers of Bhatta, Parsaul and other areas that have already handed over their land will not benefit from the new guidelines. Mayawati's announcement today is carefully timed - land acquisition for most of the significant projects in UP has already been completed. So her new policy will not likely be tested before the state votes for its next government next year.
Mayawati's attempt to make nice comes after four people were killed during a weekend in May when farmers and the police opened fire in the villages of Bhatta and Parsaul in Greater Noida. Farmers were upset over their land being acquired for public projects and then being sold to real estate companies after a considerable mark-up by the government. The shape of the protest shifted when Rahul Gandhi spent the day with farmers and was arrested by the state government before being led back across the border to Delhi. Mayawati fumed as Mr Gandhi walked away with headlines and the apparent goodwill of many families that he encountered.
Stung, Mayawati today announced a whole new policy on land acquisition. "The government will no longer acquire land from farmers. It will just act as a facilitator," she clarified. So commercial developers will have to talk directly to farmers whose land they want and work out the compensation with them. If 70 per cent of the farmers in an area don't want to hand over their land, the state government will consider cancelling the project being developed by real the estate company. And if a group of farmers don't want to sell, they will be given 23 per cent of the land after it's been commercially developed.
However, the farmers of Bhatta, Parsaul and other areas that have already handed over their land will not benefit from the new guidelines. Mayawati's announcement today is carefully timed - land acquisition for most of the significant projects in UP has already been completed. So her new policy will not likely be tested before the state votes for its next government next year.
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