The Trinamool Congress leadership in Haroa of North 24-Parganas on Sunday facilitated the payment of lease dues for 1,400 bighas of bheri (fishery) land to landowners who had been denied their rightful earnings for years.

A section of the district leadership said that this was the outcome of lessons learnt from the Sandeshkhali episode.

Some local TMC leaders had allegedly taken control of these lands in Haroa, converted them into fisheries and had been refusing to pay the agreed sum on rent. Allegedly, sometimes they even extorted money from landowners.

On Sunday, a camp was set up at Khatra Secondary School Ground in Gopalpur II gram panchayat, where money was handed over to the landowners, many of whom were paid after a decade.

As fisheries became a big source of income in the Basirhat subdivision, many farmers leased their agricultural land to fishery operators for easy earnings. However, many of these operators, often TMC leaders or workers close to now-arrested Sandeshkhali strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, stopped paying rent to the landowners.

After mass protests in Sandeshkhali over the alleged land grab by Shahjahan and his associates, the Trinamool-led state government returned nearly 90 per cent of such plots by last month.

The party in Haroa initiated a similar process, either restoring land to original owners or ensuring their dues were paid by those who had withheld payments using political clout.

Payments for 1,400 bighas of fisheries land were cleared through a fresh leasing and auction process, increasing rental benefits for landowners.

Trinamool leaders Kamrul Sardar and Ashraful Islam claimed they were previously unable to act.

“With a shift in leadership and approach, it became easier to convince the party to support these landowners, who had been deprived for years,” said Kamrul Sardar, deputy chief of Gopalpur II panchayat and TMC area committee president.

Local sources reported that about 1,000 landowners from Amta, Khatra, Pukuria, Jampur, Endua, Sonakopa and other villages in Gopalpur II gram panchayat had leased their land to eight fishery operators.

“We signed lease agreements with assured annual payments, but after the first year, we were never paid. Repeated appeals went unheard,” said Mizanur Mandal, a farmer.

One of the accused Trinamool leaders, Baghbul Kalam Munshi, husband of the local panchayat chief, allegedly exploited his position to deprive landowners.

“In many cases, he forced fishery operators to hand over our dues to him, but he never paid us. Sometimes he gave a pittance,” a farmer alleged. Another landowner claimed: “When we asked for our money, some of us were beaten up.”

Acknowledging the issue, Trinamool’s Haroa I block youth wing secretary Ashraful Amin Bulbul said: “Our goal was to ensure these villagers get what they deserved. Previously, we faced resistance from local leaders with vested interests, but things
have changed.”

Gopalpur II area committee president Kamrul Sardar said: “We informed the administration about our initiative, and hundreds of farmers have now been paid. We also reclaimed land from errant fishery operators and auctioned new leases, doubling annual rent to ₹25,000.”

Shahad Ali Molla, a landowner who received his long-overdue payments on Sunday, said: “I’m happy to get the money. I thank the local party leaders who made it possible.”

Accused leader Munshi denied charges. “I never took money. No one was ever deprived. The way land was taken back, violating lease agreements, is absolutely wrong. This is a conspiracy by some party leaders to malign me,” he said.