They claimed that the government had wrongfully taken away their land and allocated it on a 99-year lease for the proposed GIFT City project.
Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) was dragged into a controversy on Sunday when two farmer families protested against the fencing on ‘their’ land for the project. They claimed that the government had wrongfully taken away their land and allocated it on a 99-year lease for the proposed GIFT City project.
According to the families, they have been sowing on this land since 1950 and the local revenue authority had handed over its possession to them in 1971. The Gandhinagar police rushed to the spot on Sunday afternoon and detained seven farmers, who were released later.
These farmers are Manu Patel, Jetha Patel, Kanu Soma Patel, Kirit Patel, Arvind Raman Patel, Babu Puja Patel and Ramesh Hema Patel. They belong to two families in Golvanta village.
They put their claim on the land of survey no 328 and 329 in Valad village of the Gandhinagar district. The current market value of this land is around Rs20 crore. According to details, officials of the GIFT City came to Valad village to erect fencing on the land bearing survey number 328 and 329. Soon the Patels gathered near Shahpur village in Gandhinagar district to register their protest against the fencing work.
They claimed that the land bearing survey no 328 and 329 belonged to them and the government was fencing that land without their consent. They also claimed that a petition for the ownership of the land was still pending in the court. The lawyer for the Patels, Ketan Shah, claimed that the government has powers to allocate land to farmers and according to it, the said land was allocated to Patel families at the rate of Rs1,500 per acre. However, the farmers were not able to pay Rs7,500, so they paid Rs3,000 and made an appeal to the collector to reduce the rate to Rs1,000. The matter was pending without any decision.
Shah further said, in 2008 the state government had issued a fresh notification according to which the Patels can take possession of the land by paying 8 per cent interest on the principal amount. When the Patels agreed to pay the money and applied for land ownership, all of a sudden the government allocated the land to GIFT City by not entertaining their application.
However, the Gandhinagar police denied the claim of the farmers and said they had already received an application from GIFT City officials for the protection of the land. Investigation officer MC Dabhi told DNA: " The government has already cleared the land through proper legal procedures during the period of 1972-2007," He said, "The land was officially given to build GIFT City in 2008, so these farmers are creating unnecessary trouble. The whole land is already declared non-agricultural, and it was freed from encroachment by government through legal battle."
On August 5, the authorities started fencing the land on which the proposed GIFT City structures will come up. Fearing protest, the security officer for the project had informed the Dabhoda police. The police detained the agitating farmers under IPC sections 151 and 107.
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