Patna: At least nine cops were injured, two police vehicles burnt and seven others damaged when an 86-day-long protest culminated in a clash between farmers and the police Wednesday at the site of the under-construction Chausa power plant in Bihar’s Buxar.
As of Thursday morning, the situation in Chausa remained tense, with insistent farmers refusing to back down. Their demand — better compensation for land acquired by the state for the Rs 11,000-crore project.
However, Buxar Superintendent of Police (SP) Manish Kumar told ThePrint Thursday, “More forces have been deployed at the venue and the situation is under control.”
The violence was triggered by a police raid Tuesday night at the house of a farmer who, along with farmers from 26 adjoining villages, had been protesting at the gates of the under-construction power plant since October, forcing its closure.
“After the protest Tuesday, we locked the power plant gates and returned home. Around midnight, police forces came to my village Banarpur and forcibly entered my house. I managed to escape but the police assaulted my family members including women and children,” said Narendra Tiwari, one of the protesting farmers, told ThePrint.
The police claim they were executing a search warrant corresponding to an FIR filed by the circle officer (CO) of Mufassil police station for obstruction of government work.
Angered by the raids, groups of farmers clashed with police deployed at the site of the under-construction power plant. According to reports, the police had to resort to air fire after stone pelting injured nine police personnel.
Three have been arrested in connection with the violence, said SP Kumar.
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Why farmers are protesting
The 1,320-MW coal-based power plant in Buxar was conceptualised in 2011. Once complete, it will be operated by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) — a joint venture of the Himachal Pradesh government and the central government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the project’s foundation stone in March 2019. The district administration has acquired over 1,000 acres of land for the project from local farmers, and efforts are underway to acquire another 250 acres for a rail corridor and a water pipeline.
Farmers claim compensation for the land given to them between 2014 and 2016 was affixed at the circle rate from 2011. Farmers took the peaceful agitation route only after several rounds of talks with the Buxar district administration did not yield any outcomes.
Buxar-based RTI activist Shiv Prakash Rai alleged that the authorities began acquiring 250 acres of land without the approval of farmers.
“Moreover, some acquisitions were made with the urgency clause according to which landowners are paid 75 per cent more than the usual compensation. Farmers received Rs 26-28 lakh per acre when they should have received anything between Rs 36-53 lakh per acre,” he told ThePrint.
Lambasting the Nitish Kumar-led government for the Bihar police’s handling of the protests and subsequent violence, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sushil Kumar Modi said the “lathi charge (by police) was uncalled for”.
“Farmer’s demands are just. The Nitish government has become a lathmar (lathi-wielding) government, lathi-charging students, teachers and farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, questions are being raised about the Bihar government’s efforts to acquire land for the Vikramshila University in Bhagalpur which was announced by then Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley in his 2015-2016 Budget speech. Efforts to acquire land for the airport in Purnea have also fallen short, the state government is still acquiring land for Bihar’s second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Darbhanga.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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