Farmers in four villages near Diu fear losing cultivable land

RAJKOT: A 30-year-old central government order has returned to haunt nearly 500 farmers of four

villages

near Diu as they fear losing their agriculture land.


Tempers were frayed in Saudvadi, Nagao, Jaravadi and Gucharvada villages on Tuesday and Wednesday after the administration issued an order to take possession of the land to execute the three-decade-old order.

Farmers say that their forefathers were given the land by then Portuguese government for cultivation in the 1960s. As the soil was sandy, they worked hard and made the land cultivable.

On Tuesday, there was friction between the farmers and the administration team that had come to fence the land. The officials claimed that farmers had been served notice to vacate the land during 1984 to 1987. However, farmers say they have not received any such notices till date.

Shankar Baria, deputy sarpanch of Saudvadi and a farmer, said, “The administration is gagging our voice and not even permitting a peaceful protest march. If we agitate for our rights, they are clamping sections of rioting against us. We don’t want ownership of the land and don’t want to construct anything, but we want them to allow us to cultivate because this is our sole source of income. If the government wants to give us this land on lease, we are even ready to pay the rent.”

Farmers cultivate groundnut, bajra, vegetables, coconut, mangoes and other fruits in the four villages.

Farmers said that Diu deputy collector and his team had come to the villages early morning on Tuesday and wanted to fence the land. However, after stiff resistance, they gave up and returned.

Nearly 75 farmers have challenged the collector’s notice to vacate the land in Diu administrative tribunal. Their advocate Manoj Chudasama said, “In 15 cases, court has passed the order to maintain status quo while in others, the deputy collector had given an oral commitment before the court that they won’t disturb the possession. However, they didn’t fulfil the promise given before the court. We accept that it is forest land but farmers are cultivating it for generations and they want tenant status and not ownership.”

Umesh Bamania, Diu city Congress president, said, “We are asking Diu administration to maintain status quo till the court decides the matter. On one hand, government talks of doubling farmers’ income and on the other, they are taking possession of fertile land. There are nearly 6,000 to 7,000 people from 500 families who are dependent on this land.”

When deputy collector Apoorva Sharma was contacted, he said he was not authorized to talk and collector Hemant Kumar should be asked. However, Kumar did not respond to repeated calls.