Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Bhupinder Singh Hooda should take heart. They are not alone in facing political storms over their governments’ land acquisition efforts.
Congress’ star general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, too, got the rough edge of his constituency’s tongue when, during a free-wheeling interaction in Amethi, his voters berated him for eyeing their land, even if for development.
Although the protest was nothing compared with the violent agitations of West Bengal and Haryana, it is significant that even the loyal voters of the Gandhi family can bring up the issue of land acquisition.
The project in question is a pet of the Gandhi family and a prestigious one for the Rae Bareli constituency — Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT). Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is the Lok Sabha member from Rae Bareli.
At a closed-door meeting with Rahul Gandhi, the Gram Sabha head of Bahadurpur and a few more villagers said many people didn’t want to sell their land to the government. “We don’t want the institute at the cost of our land,” said a villager.
Gandhi, like a cautious administrator, told the villagers they had to choose “between development and retaining family land. Either you take the petroleum institute or let it go to some other state.”
He also tried to explain the benefit of the proposed institute, which will be one of its kind in India. “Lakhs of people will benefit,” he said.
He also discussed a better rehabilitation package and assured that he would talk to the government to provide more compensation money, and if possible, a job to a member of each family that gives up its land.
According to local resident Lalit Tiwari, around 120 acres of land will be needed to build the institute. The government has 90 acres. The rest has to be acquired from 60-70 families. Kalicharan Kodi, another participant at the meeting, said, “Rahulji assured the villagers of better compensation. This should be acceptable to all.”
On February 20, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi had laid the foundation stone for the institute at Jais in Rae Bareli.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is setting up RGIPT on the lines of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technologies. To be built at a cost of Rs 435 crore, RGIPT will offer BTech, MTech and PhD programmes and get the status of an Institute of National Importance.
Even during the stone-laying ceremony, Rahul Gandhi had to pitch hard for the benefits the project could bring. “I was told that this is a rural area and such an institute will not benefit anyone. But there is no place where education should not be extended,” he said in February.
