(from top) Jayshivsinh Vaghela, the former prince of Sanand, who has laid claim to a plot near the Nano plant; a hoarding on the Ahmedabad-Sanand road welcoming the Tata small car. Telegraph pictures

Sanand, Oct. 19: Everyone wants to cash in on the Nano effect, even royalty.

As land prices soar close to the Tatas’ small-car project, the list of people claiming ownership of neighbourhood plots swells.

Jayshivsinh Vaghela, former prince of Sanand, has laid claim to a 250-acre tract in Kalana that the village’s farmers have been tilling for decades.

Kalana is located near Chharodi, where the Tatas have got 1,100 acres from the Gujarat government for a little over Rs 400 crore. The price comes to Rs 900 per square metre, or around Rs 36 lakh an acre, which is higher than the market rate of around Rs 24 lakh an acre.

Real estate agents say land prices in the neighbourhood are now Rs 35-40 lakh an acre and will rise further.

Vaghela, 50, has sent a legal notice to the Kalana sarpanch, claiming his grandfather had given the 250 acres to a family five to six decades ago. Over the years, one of the brothers cultivating the land died and another emigrated to the US.

The villagers then encroached on the tract, says the prince who lives in Darbargarh near Sanand and has properties across the state. Sources said he was close to chief minister Narendra Modi.

The villagers, who had been euphoric about their prospects, were stunned when the prince’s legal notice asked them to stop farming the “disputed” land.

Vaghela says he has the documents to prove his claim but has failed to name the family to which his grandfather, Jaimulsinh Vaghela, had allegedly given the land.

The villagers accuse the prince of being “greedy” and “an opportunist”, who never bothered about the land till the Nano project came to Sanand.

“Since land prices have now gone up manifold, the prince has also woken up,” said Valikhan Pathan, a Kalana resident.

Sarpanch Noorkhan said he would send a “suitable” reply to the notice. He said there was “no question” of relinquishing the land that the villagers have been cultivating for years. The land, he said, is registered in the farmers’ name.

Noorkhan claimed the farmers had bought the land about 50 years ago from the prince’s father, former ruler Rudrashivji Vaghela, who died about a decade ago.

Vaghela said “the law will take its own course” but added that the farmers need not worry. “I am not a ruthless person. I care for my people and I’m a law-abiding citizen.”

At least two more lobbies are ready to challenge the land allotment to the Tatas.

The farmers of Khoda, near Chharodi, claim their forefathers had leased the land to the government in the early 20th century and that the lease had expired before the plot was given to the Tatas.

Gandhinagar-based activist H.K. Thakkar, from a little-known organisation called the Rashtriya Kisan Dal, has filed a public interest litigation in Gujarat High Court alleging procedural violations in the allotment at the cost of farmers.

Ravubha Vaghela, a farmer-turned-industrialist who has put up hoardings on the Ahmedabad-Sanand road welcoming the Nano, said the chief minister had told him the farmers would not suffer injustice. If they have not been paid compensation, they will be, he quoted Modi as saying.