Former minister Sudhakar Singh and farmer leader Rakesh Tikait will lead a protest against the proposed land acquisition for the Varanasi-Kolkata Expressway and address two gatherings on February 25 and 26 in Bihar’s Kaimur.
Singh has been in the news over his criticism of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s agriculture policy. His Rashtriya Janata Dal, a key constituent of Bihar’s ruling alliance, has distanced itself from Singh’s remarks against Kumar. Tikait was an important face of the agitation that forced the repeal of three federal farm laws in 2021.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed a 610 km access-controlled expressway connecting Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata (West Bengal) via Ranchi in Jharkhand. It is proposed to cover a 54 km stretch in Bihar and is expected to be completed by 2026.
The state government last year conducted a survey for assessment of the land categories for compensation to the farmers for the expressway land acquisition.
Local farmers formed Kisan Sangharsh Morcha alleging homestead, commercial and costly land was wrongly registered as agricultural land. They claimed the proposed compensation was less than 20% of the market land even for agricultural land.
Singh has been organising meetings and calling the farmers to join the gatherings against the proposed compensation on February 25 and 26.
Singh, who addressed a meeting on Wednesday, said the central land acquisition law passed in 2013 provided for compensation four times the market value. “But they changed it to four times of the circle value in 2017 to facilitate the industrialists and corporates.”
Singh said the demands of farmers were justified. “Service road is not being constructed along the expressway and a crossing will be at every five km. This will make the remaining land of the farmers useless and farming will be impossible. Some farmers are becoming landless…[they have] no alternative for their livelihood.”
Singh said he is a born farmer and everyone including Tikait who supports them is welcome.
