By Dr. Gyan Pathak
BJP’s attachment to Ayodhya is not emotional, but land and profit related greed, said Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav. The allegation can’t be simply brushed aside, given the way land in around Ayodhya is being acquired and transferred by the government to their own people in the name of development of the temple town as well as the pressure being exerted by the land mafia over the common poor people to sell their land to the rich persons. May Lord Ram, the god, save the poor, from their lands being planned ultimately to go to the rich.
“In Ayodhya, BJP leaders bought land for their own people at a low price and when the time came to sell it, the BJP government made arrangements to increase the circle rate. The land of Ayodhya has become a victim of BJP bargaining and profiteering. The people of Ayodhya had already known that BJP does not have an emotional attachment to Ayodhya but a ‘land-related’ and ‘profit-related’ greed,” SP supremo has alleged.
The allegation has come at a time when the District Magistrate has put out a list of proposed circle rates on August 26 and invited feedback from the people by September 4. The proposed rates are mostly increased in the range of 50 to 200 per cent higher than the prevailing rate since August 2017. After getting feedback within such a short span of time, which is in a sense an injustice for the land owners and farmers who are presently busy in their own farming and other works, the government proposes to finalise the rates and notify.
Ever since the 2019 order of the Supreme Court of India was passed in favour of construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, real estate business has seen a boom in about 50 km radius. Pieces of land have been bought and sold in an unprecedented pace. It was in this backdrop, farmers of Ayodhya had demanded increasing of circle rates, but the government did not paid heed to it.
SP Supremo Akhilesh Yadav has now alleged, “When the BJP’s greed did not spare Ayodhya, it is needless to say what they would be doing to the rest of the country. There is loot everywhere under the BJP government. When the poor and farmers in Ayodhya were demanding compensation by increasing the circle rate, the government did not do so. But when the BJP members and businessmen bought the land at cheap rates, the government increased the circle rate to give them more profit. The BJP government is anti-poor and anti-farmer.”
The projected land requirement for Ayodhya International Airport as on September 16, 2020 was 478.1 acres for phase 1. On April 8, 2022, Government of Utter Pradesh signed lease agreement to transfer 317.885 acre of land, and CM Yogi Adityanath said that the remaining 86 acre of land will also be handed over to Airport Authority soon. The first phase of the airport has already been inaugurated by PM Modi on December 30, 2023. However, issues of compensation, including the low rates, are yet to be resolved.
Now Army’s filed firing range near Ayodhya, falling in the flight path of the under-construction airport, has been de-notified. The de-notified land is about 2,211 acres. The Government sources said that it was de-notified to avoid clash with new airport’s flight path. This or other piece of army lands are to be transferred soon for civilian use and the development of Ayodhya. This move of the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) has been sharply criticised.
Adani Group is said to have interests in the International Airport of Ayodhya but also in lands in and around the temple city. It has already been reported that Adani Group has already emerged as a key buyer of real estate there. This entity has bought 1.4 hectares of agriculture land in Majha Jamthara village. Big people including politicians, businesses, corporates, government officials, film actors, and the very rich people have already purchased bigger pieces of lands in the radius of around 15 km, and now the real estate mafia are extending the business upto the radius of 50 km. It has also been reported that about 25 villages in and around Ayodhya has currently serving as real estate business hub.
What is happening to the land of the common poor people in and around Ayodhya has found expression in Congress leader Pawan Khera’s statement, who has slammed the de-notification of Army buffer zone in Ayodhya after land parcels ‘bought by Adani, Ramdev, and Ravishankar’. He alleged that Modi government at the centre and Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh and the Governor of the state were “hiding behind religion and nationalism.”
Hundreds of acre land are being acquired on cheap rates by hook or crook from poor and common people, both by land mafia and the government, and then being transferred and sold to the rich and development agencies. Common people are not getting the value of their land in terms of price or compensation.
Even before the consecration of Ram Temple on January 22, 2024 in Ayodhya, lands were being sold and purchased in a big way. It is now gaining further momentum. The poor and common living in and around Ayodhya, are being systematically displaced by the big people and the government itself. At this rate a great measure of the lands of the local common people would soon go in the hands of the rich, if government does not come out with plans to protect the poor, common people, and farmers of the region. (IPA Service)
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