Special Teams Disappointed As Farmers’ Refuse To Give Land For Simhastha

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Most of the 11 special teams formed by the district administration had to return disappointed on Friday.

Traditional ‘Simhastha Notified Area’, where about 2000 hectares of land of farmers and landowners is to be acquired to develop infrastructure and basic amenities in view of Simhastha Mahaparva-2028, some 1500 to 1800 small, medium and big farmers as well as landowners are coming under the purview of this exercise.

Most of them are not willing to give even an inch of their land. These affected people have also publicly declared through movements in the past days that they will give up their lives, but will not give up their land at any cost.

Ujjain Development Authority (UDA) has been given the responsibility of acquiring the land of traditional ‘Simhastha Notified Area’ and constructing roads, culverts, underground drains, water pipelines and telephone cables on 50 percent of the total 2000 hectares of private land, as well as building overhead water tanks and developing other necessary infrastructure and basic amenities.

The interesting thing is that no employee of UDA has been included in the 11 teams formed by the collector. Field level administrative officers have also been kept away. But college professors and principals and lecturers of higher secondary schools have been made in-charge of these teams.

A professor of engineering, who has been looking after the training of election staff in the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha for the past many years, has been asked to coordinate these teams. Patwaris, Anganwadi workers and village Kotwars have also been included in these five-member teams.

These teams have been instructed to complete their work between April 25 and May 1. On Thursday, UDA CEO Sandeep Soni explained the features of the ‘Simhastha Land Pooling Scheme’ for 1.5-2 hours and also provided a 15-page booklet, which included FAQs.

Collector Raushan Kumar Singh himself was present in the meeting, who told that the State government is going to spend more than Rs 5000 crore on the ‘Simhastha Land Pooling Scheme’.

Meanwhile, on the first day, when people from 11 teams reached Ujjain town, Mohanpura, Bhitari, Chakbhitari and Khilchipur, Bhadedamaychak and Kolukhedi, Mojamkhedi and Bhairavgarh, Gonsa and Kamed villages, most of the villagers rebuked them.

They questioned the intentions of the people in the government and administration and called the scheme biased and unreasonable. The women of the houses even dragged PM Narendra Modi into this matter and said that when the BJP people come to ask for votes, they will teach them a lesson.

Farmers also hurled harsh words at the people regarding illegal construction and encroachment in the fair area.