News and Views

Once buzzing with the sound of spinning yarns, the power looms in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi have now fallen mostly silent. First, dealing with demonetisation that forced an entire sector that had been heavily cash driven to go digital overnight and then came GST that struck a double whammy. Bhiwandi’s power loom sector no longer yields the robust business it did till about five years ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2014, Gujarat unanimously voted for their Chief Minister Narendra Modi during the General Elections helping the saffron party clinch all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state. However, in 2019, although Modi is the Prime Minister of the country, Gujaratis are visibly miffed especially in South Gujarat.

South Gujarat is not only a fertile strip of land with a bi-annual yield, it’s also one of the most heavily industrialised regions in the country. Now, three major infrastructure projects of national significance are currently underway in South Gujarat, which will eat into fertile land and has drawn the ire of several farmers.

These projects are: The Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor (Bullet Train Project), The Mumbai Ahmedabad Expressway and the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). Except for the Bullet Train project, land acquisition for the other two projects has been completed, albeit, the farmers have dragged the state government to the court.

One of the major concerns for the farmers is the paltry compensation offered to them by the government, as it is far lesser than the actual market rate of the land. The Quint met with some farmers and land owners in Bharuch District where the three above mentioned projects will kick out hundreds of farmers from their lands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ was a slogan given by Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965. Almost 55 years after that slogan and 70 years after Independence, the farmers of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha are still taking their own lives.

Year after year after year, successive governments have failed to address the farmer crisis. The Quint spoke to farmers from the Akola district of the Vidarbha region, where the farmers give a report card of the Modi government.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices