Gobindpura (Mansa), Sept 3: The Congress led by Capt Amarinder Singh in Punjab on Friday, in a major political stroke, jumped into the ongoing farmers agitation against land acquisition for a private sector thermal power plant near Gobindpura.
The 1320 MW thermal power plant is to be built by Poena Power Co, run by Indiabulls Infrastructure Ltd, for which 850 acres were to be acquired, out of which 171 acres of fertile agricultural land are presently controversial. Farmers owning this piece of land are unwilling to hand over their land. After a sustained agitation, the entire village of Gobindpura has been fenced around with barbed wire for the last several months, with chief minister Parkash Singh Bdal promising farmers' groups of bringing out a solution.
The farmers' outfits had suspended their agitation till Sept 13, but the Congress eyeing a bumper crop in the nest Assembly elections has jumped into the issue headlong.
On Friday, Capt Amarinder Singh defied prohibitory orders at Gobindpura village and forced his entry into the area along with Leader of Opposition in assembly Bibi Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and other party leaders.
All roads leading to the village were sealed but Amarinder drove in along with other party leaders, including Lal Singh, Rana Sodhi, Arvind Khanna and local MLA Mangat Rai Bansal, after a brief argument with top police officials. They also launched a “Morcha” against the SAD-BJP coalition government.
DIG (Bathinda-Mansa range) PS Grewal and Mansa SSP SPS Parmar only allowed entry to three vehicles carrying Capt Amarinder, Bhattal and a handful of other leaders. The barricades were then again placed on the road and no one was allowed entry to the village.
MLAs Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Ajitinder Singh Mofar and Makhan Singh staged a sit-in on the road and raised slogans against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal after they were denied entry.
Amarinder stopped outside the dwellings of the farm labourers and those belonging to the weaker sections who had “not been paid any compensation” for the acquired land and assured them that the Congress would “forcefully plead their case”.
Why is the Akali Dal government in a hurry to acquire land? asked Amarinder Singh. They want to finish this in four months, but just wait, after months, the Akali Dal will be swept off the power and your land will not be taken, Amarinder Singh told farmers.
However some farmers who have given their land for acquisition showed black flags to the Congress leaders.
Addressing the villagers who had assembled at the gurdwara, Amarinder Singh assured a better deal to the families of the protesting farmers whose fertile land had been acquired at a “pittance”.
He said while he had been pressing upon the state government to keep the farmers' interests paramount but in case it still went ahead with its acquisition policy, he would ensure that justice was done when the Congress “came to power” after the assembly elections.
He announced that the Congress would watch the outcome of the September 13 meeting in which Badal had invited leaders of the 17 farmer unions for the second round of talks. The party would further intensify the agitation if the farmers did not get their due in the meeting.
Earlier, he addressed a large public rally at nearby Bareta town that was organised in support of the protesting farmers. The entire township had been turned into a garrison with huge presence of police force drawn from across the state.
After the rally, Amarinder led a convoy of hundreds of vehicles towards Gobindpura. However, he was stopped at the link road leading to the village.
The police officers on the spot permitted his vehicle and an escort to go inside while hundreds of other vehicles waited outside.
Amarinder spent about an hour with the farmers in Gobindpura assuring them that the new land policy at the Centre was in their interest.
At the Bareta rally, Amarinder questioned the hurry with which the SAD-BJP government was rushing through signing land deals with various private companies.
He also questioned the method of allotting power projects through direct negotiations instead of the more transparent global tendering and competitive bidding as was done during his regime.
Bhattal accused the government of “looting and beating up” people. She remarked that the days of the SAD-BJP coalition were numbered.
Among others present on the occasion were MP Vijeyendra Singla, MLAs Harminder Singh Jassi, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, Rana KP, OP Soni, Sher Singh Ghagowal and Razia Sultan.
