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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Between land and a hard place: 'Big-ticket projects' hurting Maharashtra farmers - Ketaki Ghoge

Between land and a hard place: 'Big-ticket projects' hurting Maharashtra farmers - Ketaki Ghoge

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published Published on Jun 21, 2017   modified Modified on Oct 2, 2020
-Hindustan Times

More and more farmers are falling into debt trap because farming is no longer profitable and big-ticket infrastructure projects are taking away their lands.

Nasik:
Shantaram Waghchowre’s worries are multiplying. Already hit by plunging prices for the crops he grows in his five-acre family farm in Maharashtra’s Pimpalgaon Dukre village of Nasik district, he is now staring at abject penury.

The state government is set to acquire 50,000 acres of land for the Rs 46,000-crore Mumbai-Nagpur super communication highway to bring development to the backward regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada, but Waghchowre fears it will spell doom for him and his family.

The proposed eight-lane highway would eat up four acres of his land holding. “We survive and get by because of our land. You take this away from us and we are left with nothing. Not even hope,” rues Waghchowre.

Sharing his apprehension are 3,700 farmers in Nasik alone who have registered their objections after receiving the government notification for acquisition of their land. Incidentally, 84% of the land earmarked for the highway project is agricultural.

Already caught in the spiral of high input costs and diminishing returns, the highway project is another reason for disquiet among local farmers. The recent farmers’ protests in north Maharashtra were triggered by the government’s land acquisition policies among others.

“Not just this expressway, but all big-ticket projects cheat farmers,” said Ulka Mahajan, an anti-land acquisition activist who had led the protests against the Mahamumbai Special Economic Zone in Raigad. Many farmers agree that road projects such as the Mumbai-Nasik highway will essentially leave them by the wayside.

Their list of grievances against the government is long. Top among them is the administration’s alleged lack of transparency in land acquisition. Farmers say no social impact assessment was done and the issue of compensation to landless labourers was ignored.

They are also not impressed with the price – four times the current market rate – that the government is offering selectively. “Our land is irrigated and we can grow crops the whole year round. I don’t think you can put a price on that in Maharashtra,” said Dhanaji Waghchowre, Shantaram’s brother.

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Hindustan Times, 20 June, 2017, http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/all-big-ticket-projects-cheat-farmers-how-maharashtra-s-nasik-is-losing-agricultural-land/story-je5c1lFYGpdjqrLvLhD9SP.html


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