A day after the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh decided to pay compensation to the farmers of Bhatta-Parsaul villages, which had recently become the flashpoint between the state government and farmers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued its own set of compensation demands, asking to pay a price above the market value for farmlands.
The BJP leadership had failed to draw political mileage out of the farmers’ movement and could not even reach the villages where violent clashes between the state police and farmers had taken place.
On the first day of the three-day national executive, BJP leadership demanded that there should be a provision of annuity or equity to the land owners and at least one person of every land-owning family should be given a job in the development project.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had held a panchayat of farmers in Lucknow on Thursday and, soon after meeting, she had ordered the state police to review all cases against farmers who had been arrested during the violent clashes. She also ordered that innocent farmers and land owners be released immediately.
Senior BJP leaders also demanded that a share of farmland taken for development projects must be given back to land owners after its development. “There should be proper relief and rehabilitation for the farm workers affected by land acquisition. We have to remember that rehabilitation of land owners has to be an integral part of the land development policy,” said BJP President Nitin Gadkari while speaking at the national executive meeting in Lucknow.
Expressing solidarity with the farmers of Uttar Pradesh, especially Bhatta-Parsaul, Gadkari said the senior leadership of the party had tried giving voice to the agony of the farmers.
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“The question of acquiring farmland for development has already become a hot issue,” Gadkari added.
The BJP president also emphasised that whole issue related to acquiring farmland, quantum of land, socio-economic and cultural impact of acquisition and human aspects of the process must be seriously discussed.