Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Seeking police protection from the alleged efforts of land mafia to illegally occupy their land, farmers and owners of land under the Simhastha camp sites held a demonstration in front of the Police Control Room here on Wednesday.
Coming together under the banner of ‘Simhastha Kisan Sangharsh Samiti’, they alleged that the land mafia had the patronage of concerned government agencies.
They also objected to the alleged false reporting in a section of the media that they had consented to give their lands for the proposed ‘Simhastha Spiritual City’.
The agitators wanted to move towards the Collectorate to hand over their memorandum, police were deployed to stop them midway. After prolonged and heated arguments with CSP Central Kotwali Rahul Deshmukh, the agitators submitted their memorandum, addressed to the SP, to Deshmukh.
They accused Ujjain Development Authority (UDA) CEO Sandeep Kumar Soni of patronising the mafia-type elements to capture their lands in Simhastha camp sites.
They alleged that despite their refusal to part with their land and submitting written objections, the media has been reporting that they agreed to the process.
Samiti functionaries Lalit Meena and Rameshwar Patel said that most of the 2,000 farmers and landowners, whose about 2,300 hectares of land is proposed to be acquired for the project, are dependent on farming for sustenance.
They have been protesting for a while now, but the police are threatening them, taking them from their homes, and even dragging them into false offences, they claimed.
They alleged that the UDA, in the name of Simhastha Spiritual City, has hatched a conspiracy to acquire 50% of their land to sell it to the land mafia for developing colonies and malls.
Speaking about the reportage on the development in the Simhastha Spiritual City, they said, “Our side has not been given during such mala fide media reporting which reflects that some section of the local media persons have been working under the influence of UDA and land mafias,” in the memorandum, asking the SP to take action against the perpetrators of false propaganda.
