ON January 30, farmers of Greater Noida restarted their struggle demanding the BJP-led Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh to implement the written assurances by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA). Though the GNIDA had stated in a written agreement on September 16 last year that they will provide jobs to affected families and other demands, the state government did not act on them during the last four months.

The farmers assembled in front of the GNIDA office and declared to continue the struggle till all the assurances of revising the circle rate of land, provide higher compensation, 40 square metre house plots to landless, employment to affected families, 10 per cent developed land back to the families, are implemented.

The struggle was addressed by P Krishnaprasad, finance secretary of AIKS, Sudheer Bhatti, district president of Samajwadi Party, Ajay Choudhury of Indian National Congress, Pushpendra Tyagi CKC member of AIKS, Rupesh Verma, district president of AIKS Gautam Buddha Nagar, Gangeshwar Sharma of CITU, Asha Yadav of AIDWA, Jagbir Nambardar, Vir Singh Nagar, Manoj Kumar and Sumit Ray.

Hundreds of women and youth participated in the struggle. The farmers declared an indefinite sit-in struggle and appealed all the trade unions, mass organisations and political parties to support and join to intensify the struggle in the days to come.

The farmers criticised the local MP and MLAs for their failure to ensure the land rights of the farmers and declared that these MP, MLAs and BJP leaders will not be allowed to enter the villages till the Yogi government implements the assurances.