Ranchi, Dec. 6: Godda district administration arranged a public hearing with Adani Group officials and private land owners for a proposed power plant in two villages today amid heavy police deployment that however could not prevent sharecroppers from pelting stones and raising slogans at one of the sites.
At Motia village in Godda block, hundreds of bantedars - sharecroppers or farmhands who work on other people's land - pelted stones before the public hearing, shouting slogans against land acquisition that they said would kill their livelihood while giving them no compensation.
Police had to lathicharge and burst teargas shells to disperse the crowd. In Baksara, Poreyahat block, the hearing was relatively peaceful.
But, overall, the administration claimed the hearings were a success where raiyats, or private land owners, had agreed to part with land for the proposed 1,600MW thermal power project, which would supply electricity to Bangladesh from 2019 if everything went well.
"We have completed the process of public hearing successfully today at Motia and Baksara in Godda and Poreyahat blocks and will prepare a detailed report confirming the villagers' acceptance. The formal process of land acquisition usually starts after the public hearing report is filed," Godda DC Arvind Kumar said.
Adani Power proposes to acquire 2,120 acres of privately owned land through the government in and around 10 villages including Motia, Baksara, Regania, Sondhia. In all, 841 families, comprising 5,339 individuals, will be affected.
About 300 to 400 land owners attended each of the two hearings under huge pandals in Motia and Baksara where they were told about the project and learnt details of a social impact assessment report, prepared by an agency for the Adani group.
A Jharkhand-based Adani group official said they had "thoroughly discussed" the social impact assessment report with villagers.
Though the DC refused to divulge land rates, sources claimed villagers would get between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 50 lakh per acre. The rates would be based on new land acquisition rules that prescribes four times what is prevalent in that specific rural area.
However, trouble looms large, with the Opposition gearing up to protest against the project they have decried as the BJP's corporate sell-out in Santhal Pargana. JVM MLA of Poreyahat Pradip Yadav, one of the Assembly's most vocal voices, will hold a protest fast at Godda collectorate tomorrow, his aides alleging many raiyats were prevented from attending today's hearing.
Congress district president in Godda Deepika Pandey Singh supported the sharecroppers. "Land owners may be willing to part with land for money. But what about thousands of agriculture labourers? They would neither get jobs nor compensation but lose their livelihood. Does the company and government have a plan to rehabilitate bantedars?" she asked.
