Will raise Noida farmers' issue in Parliament: AAP leader Sanjay Singh

Dialogue can resolve conflicts in a democracy, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh said on Monday, extending his party's support to farmers protesting outside the Noida Authority office.

Farmers have been staging a protest outside the authority's office here in Sector 6 since February 10 over a host of demands including increased compensation for their acquired lands.

Today farmers are not being allowed to hold even peaceful protests. It is a democracy and every Indian has a right to protest peacefully and does not need any special permission, said Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member.

"Our great leaders had forced the British to leave India, ab kale angrezon ki satta bhi chalne nahi paayegi," he told the protestors.

"Do not try to intimidate them (farmers) with batons, jail or court cases. Find a solution to the demands of the farmers, have a dialogue with them,” Singh said, appealing to Noida Authority officials.

He also assured the farmers that he would take up their cause in Parliament during the next session which will begin from March 2 and extended support to his party to them.

The AAP leader decried the situation in the country where corporate firms and private manufactures “are free to decide the price of their products” but farmers “do not have any right to fix the price of their produce”.

“These policies have to be changed. A farmer should get the fair price for their crops which are a result of hard work and labour,” he said.

The farmers staging the protest said they are demanding 64 per cent increased compensation for their land acquired by the Noida Authority over the years and a plot of 10 per cent size of their land.

Their demand also includes plots of land that were promised by the authority for every acquired property between 1976 and 1997, even as they wanted no disruption to the population settled in any region after the acquisition.

“Eleven farmers, including myself, were arrested on February 11 and put in jail for three days. Our only fault was holding a peaceful protest to put forth our long pending demands,” said Sukhveer Pehelwan, a farmer.

He alleged that the Noida Authority has not shown any willingness to talk to them over their issues and did not consult them before charting out the new rules of approving maps even for villages.

(Image Credit: PTI)