Uttar Pradesh: Farmers protest against acquisition of land for international airport in Kushinagar

JULY 5th, KUSHINAGAR – Farmers in Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have staged a protest against the acquisition of their land for an international airport.

The place is connected by road only.

Although it has an airstrip, it is not enough to meet increasing volume of tourists from across the world.

The government had hence taken a decision to develop an international airport in the city.

The land required for the airport site is cultivable and the farmers who own the land are not willing to part with it, as it is their only source of livelihood.

Farmers from two villages fear losing their land and homes to the airport site, whereas farmers from six more villages may lose their cultivable land.

Farmers alleged that the compensation that the government is giving is not sufficient to buy land at other places.

The protest was led by former member of state legislature, Radheshyam Singh. He believes that the farmers cannot be deprived of their only asset and left landless.

“We do not oppose the new international airport, or development, but if that makes people landless and homeless, we will fight against it,” he said.

Farmers do not want to part with their land. They fear that not just them but even their children will be left landless and with no occupation in hand.

“This is our ancestors’ land. The land is cultivable. We grow rice, wheat and other crops here. It is the only source of our income.

How can we give this land away? We will get monetary compensation but what good is that? We can buy food with it for some time but what are our coming generations going to eat,” said Akhilesh Kumar, a farmer.                                (ANI)