Women’s struggling for Land: Protest going on for 24 days in protest against the expansion of the airport in Azamgarh

The process of acquiring 670 acres for Manduri Airport put in motion, womens of the affected villages sitting on a dharna. Mahila Kisan Mazdoor-panchayat organized.

Lucknow— The expansion of Manduri Airport in the Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh requires 670 acres of land. The district administration is working to acquire the nearby land for this purpose. Although the people are opposing this step by handing over a memorandum to the District Magistrate. Public organizations have also thrown their weight behind the farmers. Now, leaders of SP, BSP, and Congress have also joined the movement. Women from the earmarked villages are sitting on a dharna in large numbers.

The women are saying that jan de denge magar zameen nahi denge (we will lay our lives but not give the land). They say that they are very poor and barely manage to eke out a living and in such a scenario if the government displaces us then we will be confronted by a big problem.

Rajeev Yadav, National Convener of the National Alliance of the People,s Movement says that Manduri, Jamua, Hariram, Gadanpur, Hichchanpatti, Kadipur, Hasanpur, Jolha Jamua and Jigina Karmanpur are falling under the purview of expansion. The villagers are losing their house and whole land in the land expansion. The population of eight villages is also  in its range. The district administration is misbehaving with the Dalits and Womens.

Mahila Kisan-Mazdoor panchayat organized

Mahila Kisan-Mazdoor panchayatwas  organized by Zameen makanbachaosanyuktmorcha at jamuahariram. Dr Manuja khan of Citizen for justice and peace Kusum Verma of AIPWA, Aparna Srivastava and Ramji Yadav of Gaon ke log Dhansheela Devi of Gharelu kamgar sangathan addressed the villagers sitting on a Dharna. The women revealed about the harassment meted out to women-elders in the name of "Survey".

Dr. Manuja Rafiq Khan said that the presence of a large number of women at khiriya ki bag has declared that we are winning.

 Kusum Verma of AIPWA said that the struggle to save the jal jungle and Zameen has shown the Purvanchal that we are not ready to compromise on the issue of land. If the government does not retract the Master Plan of the International Airport then this could prove costly for the Yogi government.

Addressing the villagers, Aparna Srivastava said that it is being said that an International Airport in Azamgarhis the Dream Project of Modi-Yogi. What kind of dream is this, which involves dismantling the villages? This country is a country of villages and if villages are not saved then this country will also not be saved.

Dhansheela Devi of Gharelu Kamgar Sangathan said that the power of women has shown that we (the women) will decide what we want. The dream of flying airplanes in the name of development will blow away the poor people from this land.

Phoolmati, Sunita, Neelam, Sudha, Kalinda, and Subhawati shared their struggles. They are also shared the painful experience of Police harassment on 12-13 (October) and all of them unanimously declared that they won't give up their land-house. The demand to withdraw the Master Plan of the International Airport was raised vehemently.

Anjali Yadav presided over the Mahila-Kisan mazdoor panchayat

The meeting on 6th November at Khiria Ki Baag of Jamua against the looting of land will be addressed by Gurnam Singh Choodni of Kurukshetra, Jagtaar Singh Bajwa of Uttarakhand, Sandeep Pandey, Kamlesh Choudhary, Maan Singh Yadav, and Lalit Tyagi.

[Story Translated By Pratikshit Singh]