Ichhapore farmers attack GIDC staff

Seven employees of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) employees were allegedly beaten up by some farmers of Ichhapore village, on Monday.

GIDC staff had gone to Ichhapore village for measuring the land for the proposed Gem & Jewellery Park, yesterday afternoon.

Hardly had they started their work, that some of the local farmers approached them and questioned about the purpose of their visit. Farmers, who oppose the setting up of the Gem Park, then allegedly beat up the GIDC employees.

Dhiraj Patel, the member of Ichhapore Gramya Vikas Seva Samiti, confirming the incident said: "The GIDC employees had come to Ichhapore at around 12 p.m . We asked them to leave, but they used offensive words and asked us to mind our own business. This angered some of the village's youths, who attacked the GIDC employees and forced them to leave," Patel said.

GIDC officials, however, denied the incident outright. "No such incident took place. None of the GIDC employees had gone to Ichhapore on Monday and none were attacked by the farmers," said a senior GIDC official on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the farmers have written to Surat's guardian minister, Narottam Patel, and sought his help in arranging a meeting with the chief minister Narendra Modi.

The letter states: "The land at Ichhapore, which GIDC is planning to sell to Gujarat Hira Bourse for developing a Gem & Jewellery Park, is extremely fertile and is used for agriculture, all round the year. Hundreds of farmers are dependent on the land for their livelihood.

Instead of selling the land to the hira bourse, the land should be returned to farmers, as they are the original owners."

The farmers have also requested Narottam Patel to help arrange a meeting with Narendra Modi, so that they could apprise the CM about the actual situation and try to dissuade him from selling the land to GHB.

Said Dhiraj Patel, said, "Our land was reserved by GIDC 18 years back for developing industrial sheds. No such activity has taken place on the land and hence in accordance with rules, the land should be returned to us. But the state government is trying to sell the land to GHB.

"If our land is sold to the hira bourse, we will lose our only means of livelihood. We will try to persuade Modi to allot some alternate site to GHB for the jewellery park instead of our fertile land. We are hopeful that the chief minister would give time to us and listen to our problems, before taking a final decision," Patel said.