The Central and State governments have shown renewed interest in fast-tracking the Chennai-Salem eight-lane greenfield corridor project.
Immediately after the Lok Sabha results, which the BJP won with a thumping majority, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) went to the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court’s stay on land acquisition for the ₹10,000 crore project. The apex court refused to vacate the stay and has sent notices to the parties, including the Tamil Nadu government.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, despite his party’s drubbing in the western belt, including Salem where he hails from, has started talking about the benefits of the project, emphasising that the government will not forcefully take the land away from the occupants of the area. At every opportunity, he reiterates the need for the corridor to fuel growth in the western districts. He seeks cooperation from the farmers and promises them good compensation and consultations before the project is implemented.
On the ground, there still seems to be strong resistance to the eight-lane road that will cut through farmlands, ancestral properties, waterbodies and reserve forests in five districts. In Salem, the farmers who were relieved following the High Court stay, have frankly been taken aback. They feel betrayed. The NHAI’s move triggered a fresh rounds of protests at different places along the proposed alignment for the road.
Farmers fear that the BJP government at the Centre might be taking revenge on them for the party’s complete washout in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu. Besides, the concern over loss of agricultural lands, green cover and natural resources, other reasons that seem to be spurring the farmers into protests in the region are loss of ancestral property and the fear that the land — their only asset — will be usurped, and low compensation paid.
Paramayi, a 70-year-old farmer protesting against the project in Salem, says, “We will be losing close to four acres of land. This is our ancestral land and it is the only piece of land we have. We make a living through farming and if this land is lost, what will we do for our livelihood?” She has four sons and the land is their only source of income.
Another farmer in the area, R. Mohanasundaram, who stands to lose six acres of land for the project, says: “We have lost our sleep. The alignment goes through my land. If the road comes up, I will have less than an acre.”
Stating that the Chief Minister has come up with new reasons to implement the project, the farmers here ask why he, a native of Salem district, has not even bothered to meet them once to explain the benefits of the project. Protesters also argue that the compensation offered is low. The market price for an acre here is between ₹12-16 lakh, but they fear that the compensation they will get would be less than ₹10 lakh.
Fear of force
In many places, the protesters also fear that the Central and State governments may use brute force to quell any dissent.
“Peaceful protests were stifled, unwritten gag orders were promulgated, and police force was used to handle the peaceful protesters who were making a request to spare them and their lands. Only after the court intervened did these high-handed actions subside,” reads the Madras High Court order that quashed land acquisition proceedings for the project on April 8.
Questioning the feasibility report, time taken to complete it and its legality among other things, the High Court, in its order, said: “…We are concerned about the innocent people who are not aware of their rights, as they know that they will not be able to survive without their agricultural lands. The nature of attachment to the land is inseparable.”
The High Court had also ordered that the revenue records that transferred private property as government lands be reversed and restored in the names of the landowners. According to Arul, an activist who is part of the 8-lane Opposition Movement, the survey numbers were locked and no sale can happen. “We are collating information on the revenue records,” he says.
Some hyper-vigilant farmers continue to be suspicious of the State. A fortnight ago, a few of them seized trucks carrying illegally-felled bamboo trees in a forest area along the alignment near Manjavadi in Dharmapuri. They suspect thickets are being cleared to show them as barren areas as and when the environment assessment is carried out.
Continued protests
Campaigns against the corridor continue across Tiruvannamalai district as it has the longest stretch of 122 km, starting at Nepathurai village in Chengam taluk and ending in Thethurai village in Cheyyar taluk.
“What do I know other than agriculture? If cultivable land from farmers like me is taken away for the sake of a road, people in the cities will have to go hungry,” says K. Mani, a farmer in Pillur village in Tiruvannamalai district. A portion of his two-acre land has been identified for the project.
“I raise crops such as paddy and sugarcane, depending on the rain and availability of water. Only if 10 farmers cultivate paddy, rice will be available at lower cost to the people. If five of them lose their livelihood, the cost will go up. We will continue to register our protest,” he said.
According to Tiruvannamalai district officials, around 859 hectares of land were identified for acquisition. Of this, 712 hectares of private lands and around 125 hectares government lands were identified for acquisition in 79 villages. Of the private lands, nearly 100 hectares were wet land and 612 hectares dry. The project also requires nearly 21 hectares of forest land in Tiruvannamalai district alone.
The High Court had made it clear that the grant of environmental clearance would undoubtedly require a thorough study of the area, and before that, a public hearing was needed.
In its order, the High Court also referred to remote villages with no motorable roads because the Forest Department would not grant permission to lay a road lest it open the area up to poaching and illegal felling of timber. “What would happen if a highway were to pass through a 10-km reserve forest?” the court asked.
Not on board
Statistics show that nearly one-fourth of the landowners in Tiruvannamalai are opposing the project. Out of the 4,456 landowners (patta holders) in the 79 villages, 1,082 objected to the project, 119 demanded higher compensation, 93 sought employment and 16 requested compensatory land.
M. Sivakumar, district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Tiruvannamalai, says they held a protest soon after the Chief Minister said that only 7% farmers were opposing the project and that the corridor was necessary.
“The project should not be taken up. In Tiruvannamalai, it would end up affecting villages in seven of the 12 taluks — Cheyyar, Vandavasi, Chetpet, Arni, Kalasapakkam, Tiruvannamalai and Chengam. In fact, persons will lose their houses in three villages — Narasinganallur, Muthanur and Padiagraharam,” he says.
S. Abiraman, advocate and chief coordinator of the protest federation, says they were planning to stage an agitation and submit petitions to the special DRO and Collector to implement the Madras High Court direction to restore the lands to the owners within eight weeks.
Kancheepuram has not seen any strong protests but farmers here want the governments to drop the project. “What is the point of a road if thousands of farmers are going to lose their livelihood? Even schools will be demolished in the process of laying the road,” says K. Nehru, Tamil Nadu Vivasiyagal Sanagmam, Kancheepuram district secretary.
Aproximately 2,000 acres of land, 110 wells, 200 houses, schools, two graveyards, lakes and ponds will disappear in the district, he says. Revenue officials, though, remain tight-lipped.
K. Sriraman of Manalmedu village says he will lose 10 cents of agricultural land and a well. His uncle P. Subramani will also lose two acres of farm land and a well. “There is no clarity. We have not been told what the compensation would be. We are not sure what to do if the government takes away the land forcibly,” he says.
Benefits stressed
NHAI officials say the greenfield alignment has many advantages. It will help farmers who produce turmeric, mangoes, bananas and the poultry industry in the western districts and provide them better connectivity to markets.
When compared to the present 368.4-km route via Vellore, the proposed road is access-controlled and will have only 5 National Highway and 10 State Highway crossings. The new 277.3-km route will facilitate high-speed traffic. The travel time will be brought down from the present 7 hours to two-and-a-half hours, officials say. Despite the anti-Narendra Modi vote in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK government has managed to survive by winning nine seats in the Assembly bypolls. It looks like it is on course to complete its five-year term. With the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2021, public sentiment could well turn against the AIADMK government if it forces projects, especially those on behalf of the Central government, against public will. Any vigorous push for the corridor could just be a tipping point, leading to its ouster in two years’ time.
( Reporting by Vignesh V. in Salem, P.V. Srividya in Dharmapuri, Serena Josephine M. in Tiruvannamalai, Vivek Narayanan in Kancheepuram and Deepa H. Ramakrishnan in Chennai)
