Simhastha Land Pooling Scheme: Farmers Boycott Crucial Meeting

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Peeved over the attitude of police and civil administration while dealing with their agitation, the farmers and landowners of Simhastha camp sites boycotted a meeting convened by the Indore collector-cum-Simhastha Fair Officer (SFO) Asheesh Singh here on Wednesday evening.

The meeting was convened at Circuit House and officials of Ujjain Development Authority (UDA) and revenue department had approached the big and influential farmers and landowners, to explain the benefits of the scheme.  

However, the farmers declined to attend the meeting in protest against the repeated changing contours of the land pooling scheme.

A prime land owner of Mangalnath camp site told Free Press that when the UDA introduced the scheme, it was said that there would be no provision of any sort of compensation against the acquisition of the land.

Later, it was assured that compensation equivalent to collector’s guideline would be provided and now we have been assured that a special package which is double the collector’s guideline will be given to us.

“The current rate of my land is Rs 1.50 crore per bigha and even if the government provides me Rs 15 to 30 lakh per bigha under the so-called special package, how can I accept it.”   

A number of farmers and land owners were of the opinion that neither the UDA nor Simhastha Fair authorities were aware of all details of the scheme and that is why they were saying different things on different days.