Day 14 of Khedut Vedna Yatra (A footmarch to highlight farmers’ distress in Gujarat)

This is the fourteenth day of the Khedut Vedna Yatra (A footmarch to highlight farmers’ distress in Gujarat). Sagar Rabari (Secretary) and Pinak Dhamelia (Trustee) of Khedut Samaj-Gujarat have marched from Somnath and will reach village Fedra this evening where there will be a night meeting.
This morning, the marchers – Sagar Rabari, Pinak Dhamelia and Rupesh Kumar – set off from Dhandhuka town. They walked through the town, distributing pamphlets and conducting informal talks with the people. They reached village Rayka also where they walked through the village distributing pamphlets and had a small meeting there. The marchers have been joined today by members of the Bhal Bachao Samiti – Shri Hanubhai, Shri Roopsangbhai, Shri Bhagwanbhai and Shri Rameshbhai (village Sarasla) and Shri Mabbhai, Shri Ishwarbhai and Shri Jagdishbhai (village Sandhida).
They were joined by different people from different parts of Gujarat on various days, apart from the people of the villages which they passed through.
They have been receiving overwhelming support from all the places that they visited. They held meetings in most of the villages where they stopped for lunch and night halt. Each meeting saw an average presence of around 200 villagers/farmers.
The farmers have articulated their difficulties and challenges, with regional variations. However, the overarching message is one of gross neglect of the farm sector and farmers as a group by the political class. The anger, frustration and distress of the farmers is very palpable.

The farmers have been voicing their vedna (distress) – from acquisition of their lands, to inadequate water and electricity, lack of farm credit, depletion of grazing and common lands and hence non-viability of cattle rearing, non-remunerative agriculture, lack of jobs outside of agriculture sector… In short, a veritable chakravyuh!!
Among the many issues that were voiced on the nearly 350 km. route so far were:

The compounding of the difficulties by demonitisation at the height of the sowing season: The farmers and villagers use the meetings to express their extreme frustration and anger on account of demonitization.

The various legislative actions of the GoG to deliberately deepen the crisis in agriculture so that farmers are rendered desperate enough to want to sell their land. Chief among them being the amended LARR Act, the Land Ceiling and Tenancy Acts, the SIR Act, the Drainage an Irrigation Act.

The phenomenon of ‘jobless growth’ and the crisis of joblessness on account of automation in the not-so-distant future are also issues which touch the people deeply.

the land acquisition for the highways, the post-acquisition squabbles over compensation and the pending issue for arbitration, the Collectors dragging their feet over arbitration and the farmers having to wait endlessly for compensation.

crop damage by blue bulls and wild boars,

the mindless decision of scheduling electricity for irrigation purposes at night forcing farmers to stay up, leading to health complications arising out of sleep deprivation.

is the difficulty for animals to graze freely due to the large scale wind farms. The animals avoid those due to the noise and the vibrations. The resultant shrinking of the grazing area is a real threat to the livelihood of cattle rearing communities

the college-going youths have surprisingly showed great enthusiasm for knowing about agriculture as a viable employment option

The farmers in region (Botad) voiced their concern about SSNNL’s (Narmada Nigam) deliberate refusal to fill the lakes and reservoirs in the monsoon with water. Despite several representations the SSNNL is steadfastly refusing to do what has been promised to the farmers of the region by the GoG.

large-scale cheating of cotton farmers by the wholesale dealers

The farmers also voiced their acute frustration and anger at the government for cheating them out of their compensation for the land used for laying of high tension electric lines and water pipelines. They said that the GoG gave them a nominal compensation for “crop loss” amounting to, on an average, Rs. 15,000-20,000/-. However, as per the provisions of the Electricity Pole Act and Pipeline Act, they have a right to choose between an annual rent or a one-time compensation; the GoG never informed them of this provision. Besides, even a minimal one-time compensation for the land would amount to at least around 3 – 5 lakhs. So they feel grossly cheated by the GoG.

Irrigation has been a long-standing issue in the Bhal region which the political class has not paid attention to in the last 2 decades or so. The need for more check dams was voiced as also the requisite infrastructure (on the Narmada canal) to make irrigation water available to more areas.
(Release)

Hastakshep