Jaipur: It’s been more than a decade since farmers were forced to surrender their land for the Ring Road project but compensation remains a mirage for many till today. They are frustrated and now angry, and blame both Congress and BJP for their plight. It’s not just the Ring Road, successive governments have failed to provide compensation for land in several other development projects.After coming to power in 2013, the BJP government initiated the long-pending process of taking possession of the acquired land for projects including the Ring Road and Ninder housing scheme.Farmers said due to lack of support from public representatives they are battling for survival after their land was forcefully acquired by the government. Even after making several farmers landless and homeless, the government has not completed the projects, they added.Om Kumar, a farmer from Praladpura whose land was acquired for the Ring Road project, said, “We are not against development. We only want our compensation. Since 2007, we have been fighting for this. It is our right. However, after BJP came to power, we were sent in the custody. Our houses and wells were demolished. We have been waiting for appropriate compensation for the past five years.”Like Om, there are several other farmers in Praladpura who lost their sole source of livelihood after Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) acquired 260 bigha from this village.Farmers of Ninder village who had lain half-buried on the ground for 40 days against the acquisition of their agriculture land too are in no mood to support the government. The civic body planned to develop 3,000 plots on 1,350 bigha.Affected farmers alleged that majority of JDA’s housing schemes developed in the past 10 years were still lying vacant and yet the BJP government was hell-bent on developing a new scheme that too by uprooting the farmers and snatching away their only means of livelihood.80-year-old Dhapa Devi, who had protested to save her land, said, “The civic body is taking our expensive land for developing a housing project which will have very little utility. Also, the government is not providing any compensation. We would vote for the party which would expeditiously provide us compensation. No leader of ruling party came forward to hear our plights and helped us.”The BJP government has also proposed to acquire land for a greenfield airport project in Shivdaspura. The district administration has said that it would acquire 2,100.8 hectares in 20 villages for the new airport. However, many residents are facing difficulty as buildings, houses and plots situated on the reserve land for Shivdaspura airport cannot be regularized. Ashok Singh, an affected owner said, “The villagers are facing problem due to lack of planning. If government wants to develop the airport, they should provide compensation. Now, we cannot sell our land to meet our urgent requirements because the land has been reserved by the government.”

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