Right to harvest?: Wheat farmers protest ‘expropriation of crop’

Wildlife Dept says land originally meant to be pond area was given to them two year ago.

GUJRANWALA:

As many as 70 farmers who claim to have leased 523 acres of pond area land in Tanda protested on Friday against the Wildlife Department, accusing it of expropriating wheat they had cultivated on the land.

Talking to The Express Tribune, six of the protesters said the land was leased to them by the Irrigation Department in 2008 at Rs5 million per annum. Ansar Javed, Malik Ibrar, Abdul Razzaq, Ghulam Haider, Waqar Ahmed and Ghulam Muhammad said they had distributed 225 acres among themselves and leased the remaining to other farmers who were also present at the protest. “We have paid the lease and worked throughout the year to cultivate the land. The administration cannot just come one day and take the produce away,” they said.

Wildlife Department spokesman Amjad Ali said the farmers had shown a lease agreement they had signed with a head clerk of the Irrigation Department. But, he said, the document appeared dubious. He said the land, declared pond area for Head Marala and Qadirpur barrages built in 1970s, was allotted by the Gujrat district administration to the Wildlife, Agriculture and Forests Departments two years ago. He said the farmers’ plea against the department over their lease was dismissed by a civil court in 2010. He said two appeals the farmers filed first with the district court in 2011 and second with the Lahore High Court in June 2011 were also dismissed.

Amjad Ali said the department had so far taken produce from 423 acres and planned to harvest crop from the remaining 100 acre on Monday. He said the delay was caused by the Army Welfare Trust’s claim over the remaining 100 acres. “They say the land was allotted to them by former Gujranwala commissioner but the district administration does not have record of such an allotment,” he said.

Gujrat district coordination officer Nawazish Ali said wheat from the 100 acre land would be harvested on Monday and deposited with the Revenue Department. He said he had asked the AWT officials to bring evidence to back up their claim over the land. However, he added, no one from the AWT had yet approached him with the evidence so the administration would likely go ahead and harvest the crop on Monday.

The DCO said the protesting farmers were among those paid compensation for their land acquired by the government in 1970 for the construction of two barrages over River Chenab. He said as the land dried up several years ago some of the farmers had relocated and started wheat and fish farming.

The control of the fish farms on 2,200 acres of Qadirpur’s pond area was taken away by the administration but wheat farms had been disputed until last year.

He said a six member committee had been formed to suggest ways to deal with the farmers who were working on the farms to produce fish and wheat. District Wildlife officer Irshad Arshad, one of the six members, said the committee had decided that the farmers had no right to the produce. “The court has decided the matter in our favour. Why should we give anything to the farmers?” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2012.