Nagpur: “Thirteen years ago they took away our fertile and valuable agricultural land from us giving us very little compensation. They promised our boys would get jobs in MIHAN earning good salaries and we would be re instituted in another location – all these promises have been false.
There are no jobs, no companies or factories have come up as promised and the meagre amount we received as compensation does not even fetch us Rs. 3000/ from fixed deposits in Banks, how can we live on this paltry amount? Give us our land back, as it is, it has remained fallow! There is no activity – where is this MIHAN of which you spoke? If it ever existed it is dead now…please return our lands to us” demanded angry Shivangaon villagers, the village most affected by MIHAN.
To express their dissatisfaction and press their demands the villagers used a novel approach. They gathered together in large numbers at the school premises in Shivangaon; this school is also going to have to shut down soon since it is MIHAN ‘affected’ and its land taken over on paper.
From there they carried out a ‘funeral procession’ of MIHAN which then marched all through the village. It was joined enthusiastically by many villagers apart from the agitators. Police were also present in large numbers as soon as they got a whiff of the goings on.
It is learnt that the police at first tried to prevent the ‘ pret yatra’ of MIHAN but seeing the sheer number of people joining it and sensing their angry mood they withdrew and meekly followed the procession.
The people marching soon reached the new ‘taxi way’ of the Nagpur international airport. Shivangaon people had opposed this taxi way tooth and nail once upon a time. After the previous Congress government had accepted all their demands they withdrew the agitation which has come to life again since the new BJP government is allegedly completely insensitive to the villagers’ woes.
They are demanding adequate compensation for their lands within city limits as Shivangaon comes in Nagpur limits and is in fact part of the constituency of the Chief Minister! They have a host of other demands related to MIHAN which they feel the CM can easily fulfill since it falls directly under his purview.
Villagers have threatened to intensify their stir if their demands are not met sympathetically soon.
It can also be mentioned here that before the Shivangaon issue is solved to everyone’s satisfaction the compound wall around MIHAN cannot be constructed leaving MIHAN offices and properties vulnerable to robberies and pilferage which is happening regularly.
