Click to play videoPune: As Nandigram struggles with violence and conflict over land acquisition and industrial development, farmers in Pune's Khed village have found a way to keep the government authorities happy by giving away their land. At the same time, they are also enjoying the benefits of industrialisation and it's a happy equation for both sides.
For the farmers, it wasn't easy to part with their 3,700 acres of land. But after various meetings with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, the farmers decided to give away their lands for a Special Economic Zone, but on certain conditions.
"Bekar zamin thi, woh diya kee phir hume kaam milega, kheti chalega (The land was infertile, so I gave it away in the hope that we will be given jobs)," Eknath Kazare, a farmer, says.
The MIDC has proposed a special economic zone on this land measuring thousands of hectares. But for three years, no decision could be taken and everybody waited patiently till an amicable solution was found. And when it happened, the farmers of Khed set an example that, they hope, other SEZs will now follow.
The agreement signed between Bharat Forge — which has a 74 per cent share in the SEZ — MIDC and over 1,200 farmers of the village says the farmers will have one company of their own in the SEZ.
Other conditions say 500 acres of the developed land will be given to the farmers' company; schools and hospitals will be set up in the area and each member of the affected families will be trained and given a job in the SEZ.
"The farmers have 50 acres of the land and MIDC will add some per cent, say 50 acres more, to become partners and then the entire land can be given out to one or two companies on rent basis. Then this rent will be distributed to all farmers," Pune district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh explains the fineprint.
The farmers say they are under no pressure to give up their land. "Jo Nandigram main hua, woh rajkaran tha. Yahan aisa nahin hain, humne khud apni marji se zamin dee hain, (What's happened in Nandigram was forceful. Nothing of that sort happened here. We have given our land on our own accord)," farmer Eknath Kazare says.
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