"We propose to cancel the previous resolution which was passed clandestinely to grant the pasture to the Adani Group.
"If the panchayat does not act on this resolution passed by the gram sabha, we will propose to dissolve the village panchayat because it has forged a nexus with the Adani people to illegally acquire our pasture," said Valji Gadhvi, the convenor of the Save Gauchar Committee.
The Adani Group refutes the charge. "We have been allotted the land following proper procedure. If any issue has cropped up, it is internal matter of the village's governing body, and the company has nothing to do with it," said Hiren Shah, a representative of the group.
The village, which has 9,000 heads of cattle, has also challenged the panchayat's resolution in the Gujarat High Court and threatened that it would not let the company begin work on the land.
The Zarapara land deal is just the tip of the iceberg.
As per government norms, 16 ha of gauchar land is allocated per 100 animals and cannot be sold. The Adani Group has taken gauchar land in about 10 villages surrounding the Mundra port (see table: Grazing on pastures). People in other villages have also started agitating against the arbitrary decisions taken by panchayats. The real shock, however, lies in the price at which the Adanis got the land.
An exercise in land grabbing?
Re 1 per square metre. That is the price at which Gautam Adani, ranked 91 on the Forbes' World Billionaires list, bought some land tracts from the Gujarat government for the SEZ coming up on the northern shore of the Gulf of Kutch. The extraordinary subsidy, acknowledged by the government in the Assembly, covers over 5,000 ha Adani has received in 14 villages in and around the Mundra port.
On the other hand, in Dhrub village, for instance, other companies were given land at Rs 60 per sq m, while Adani clinched the deal between Rs 12.5 per sq m and Rs 25 per sq m. In Mundra village, Adani was offered land at Rs 25 per sq m, while others were charged over Rs 70 per sq m.
After levelling and zoning the tracts into plots, the Adanis are now selling them to private companies at rates ranging from Rs 800 per sq m to Rs 2,000 per sq m. According to residents of the area, the current value of land in Mundra taluka is between Rs 123 per sq m and Rs 3,700 per sq m. The government has allotted pieces of land in Dhrub for industrial development to Mahalaxmi Enterprise, Balaji Industries, Omega Enterprise, Anmol Enterprise, Shriji Industries, Keshav Industries and others at rates between Rs 60 per sq m and Rs 70 per sq m. In Mundra, the government took Rs 72 per sq m from Swati Energy and Project, Sujyoti Free Invest, Blue Sea Enterprise, Jay Ambe Enterprise, Prince Enterprise and Shaurya Enterprise.
Moreover, in the last assembly session, the government admitted that about 15 salt-pan lease holders had surrendered their land, and that the government had granted them to the Mundra sez. The government stated that in Mundra, Dhrub and Zarapara villages, 479 ha was granted to the sez proponent at Rs 25 per sq m. In Tunda, Shiracha and Navinal, 1,096 ha were given to the Adanis. These land tracts were returned by salt-pan workers.
A Congress MLA from Kutch, Babu Meghji Shah, said the Mundra SEZ is nothing but a realty scam facilitated by the state government to benefit the Adani Group.
"In Dhrub, land value is close to Rs 1.5 crore per acre (Rs 3.7 crore per ha). But the state government has granted land to Adani at Rs 40,000 per acre (Rs 89,500 per ha). This suggests under-the-table dealings between the Narendra Modi government and the Adani Group," Shah said.
The Tata Group bought land for a power plant in villages near the Mundra port at Rs 14.8 lakh per ha. Shah asked why the government had not charged the same amount from the Adanis.
Officials in the district collectorate and district panchayat refused to provide any details, but declared that they acted on instructions issued from Gandhinagar.
"The administration in Mundra and Kutch is acting like an agent of the Adanis, trying to facilitate every stage of transaction, from identifying land to acquisition and possession," said a local real-estate agent.
Representatives of the Adani Group were not forthcoming on the Mundra dealings. They said Mundra Port and sez was a listed company and necessary details were provided in the red-herring prospectus at the time of its initial public offering last year.