Sanawad (Madhya Pradesh): Farmers from Sanawad and its adjoining villages, including Rajpura, Khangwara and Chitramod, are at loggerheads with power transmission company over installation of power transmission towers in their agriculture field.
Barwah – Sanawad MLA Sachin Birla, who is demanding compensation for farmers, intervened in the matter in favour of farmers and talked to company officials.
MLA Birla clearly told company officers that towers should not be installed in fields till advance compensation was paid to farmers.
MLA discussed compensation issues in detail with administrative and company officials and the aggrieved farmers.
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Describing the outcome of the discussion, MLA Birla said that till farmers do not get proper compensation, the company would not be allowed to put up towers in the fields. The MLA said that he would write a letter to higher officials of the government to get proper compensation for farmers. He further said that the company would have to stop installing towers till farmers get compensation for the valuable land and crop.
Earlier, the company men had dug up a pit for a tower on land of Rajpura farmer Omprakash Khodaria. As the work was undertaken without his permission, Khodaria, his wife and other farmers squatted before JCB to protest digging of pits in the field.
As the news spread, hundreds of farmers from nearby villages reached Khodaria’s field.
A large police force was also deployed at the spot to control the situation. The company continued the digging of the pit in police presence.
Khodaria told the farmers that company officials had entered his farm without prior information. He further said that he had also not received any compensation for tower installation. Khodaria also claimed that use of heavy machinery had damaged his crops too.
The aggrieved farmers demanded advance compensation in lieu tower installation and stopped the company's machines. MLA Birla too reached out to help the farmers and tried reconciliation between the two sides.
During this, farmer leaders Inder Birla, Jai Crora, Mukesh Lonkar, company's superintendent engineer Satish Dubey, SDM Anukul Jain, SDOP Vinod Dixit, station in-charge MR Romde, tehsildar Shivram Kanase, naib tehsildar Krishna Patel and a large number of aggrieved farmers were present.
After the MLA's assurance, the matter was settled peacefully. The company's superintendent engineer Satish Dubey said that higher officials had been informed about farmers’ demands.
