National

Like Thieves On Their Own Land

Many of those who sacrificed their lands now clean bathrooms in Sri City offices or are daily-wage workers.

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Like Thieves On Their Own Land
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  • The project: Sri City SEZ
  • The issue: Unemployment & displacement

When the development of the 7,600-acre SEZ ‘Sri City’ was notified in September 2007, it drew such global giants as PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, Alstom and Isuzu. Farmer lands across 16 villages in three mandals, Varadaiahpalem, Sathya­veedu and a small part of Tada mandal (Nellore district) were taken over. But like in all SEZs, the story of uprooted farmers is the same. The promised jobs did not come through and many who do work in the factories in Sri City hold jobs like contract labourers or security guards. “Besides, while an entire household is dependent on a farm holding, only one person in the family is given a job as compensation. Very few of them land jobs as skilled workers in the factories,” says Usha Seetha­lakshmi, an independent researcher on SEZs.

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Right from the time the SEZ was announced, a group of about 30 farmers in Thonduru village, Varadaiahpalem mandal, refused to part with their land. Reason: they had been uprooted once before, 37 years earlier, from Nellore district when the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota island was set up. Erakam Seshaiah, 66, who owns two acres and 72 cents, is one among those. “I had 10 acres in Nellore where the space station came up in 1970. We were sent to this village called Sriharikota Colony and ‘rehabilitated’. I was promised five acres but got only half. It was the Congress government then which uprooted us, and in 2007 again it was another Congress government which tried taking this land,” he fumes.

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Seshaiah was among the 30 who filed a writ petition in the high court contesting the action of revenue authorities taking over land from farmers in Sriharikota Colony for the SEZ. In 2013, Justice S.V. Bhatt set aside the orders to acquire the land of these farmers. “But our problems are never-ending,” says Seshaiah’s son Erakam Masthan, 37. “When some of the petitioners later tried to sell their land to raise funds for their children’s marriages, the MROs refused to sign on forms,” explains Masthan. 

Putting pressure and even ostracisation of farmers who oppose land acquisition is common. When Seshaiah & co went to court, they faced daily threats from goons. Mandal revenue officers refused to issue crop loans saying their land technically comes under the notified SEZ. “We are treated like thieves on our own farmlands by revenue officials simply because we did not succumb to the SEZ,” says an angry Masthan. Seshaiah fumes saying many of those who sacrificed their lands now clean bathrooms in Sri City offices or are daily- wage workers.

The farmers here grow mangoes, vegetables, pulses, rose, jasmine and market them in Chennai, 55 km away. Seetha­lakshmi says that many of the canals which were dug under the Telugu Ganga project and were supplying irrigation for some 4,000 acres have been diverted to Sri City. “So basically public taxpayers’ money spent on canal construction is wasted. Isn’t this illegal and unconstitutional?” she asks.

By Madhavi Tata in Chittoor

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