What months of intervention by gun and baton-wielding cops could not do to quell the prevailing tension between authorities and farmers in Noida, has been accomplished by a man who chose to reach out to all and sundry with a smile.
The simmering trouble in Noida on account of the threat issued by farmers to paralyse all development and construction activity in this prime National Capital Region area has been nipped in the bud by Balwinder Kumar, the newly appointed Noida chairman cum chief executive officer. Kumar chose to put up the human face of a bureaucrat and succeeded in winning over the warring farmers.
However, this 1981 batch Indian Administrative Service officer refuses to take any credit for the success he has achieved in ensuring a written undertaking from the threatening farmers to call off their agitation.
Trouble in the area was all set to escalate in as many as 54 villages, spread across about 20,000 hectares of acquired land, out of which modern Noida was carved out.
Even more significant was that Kumar did not have to buy peace by conceding the farmers' demand for additional compensation against their land that was acquired way back in the late seventies and eighties.
Instead of moving around with armed guards and khakhi clad cops, Kumar started visiting village after village, where he would call the local farmers and hold one-to-one discussion on the lines of a panchayat. "I knew it was pointless calling the farmers' representatives to my office which seemed intimidating to them. Therefore, I chose to set out every morning at 7 and meet the villagers at their doorstep", he said.
"Whatever I did was part of my duty. And I began by making it loud and clear to the farmers that it was impractical to think of reopening the chapter of compensation that was determined decades ago, but at the same time I told them that we would sincerely resolve every other issue," said Kumar, who assumed charge less than a fortnight back.
"They promptly came up with issues that had actually been hanging fire for too long, and there was no valid reason to turn those down," he added.
What the farmers seemed to be primarily interested in was development of the remaining part of their villages that remained an eyesore despite being technically merged into the developed Noida. Besides, they also sought fulfillment of a very old commitment of return of 5 per cent of their acquired land in the form of developed plots against payment of nominal development charges.
"Sure enough, that was no big deal and in any case, both the demands raised by them looked absolutely legitimate and feasible. I got instant support from the government, which was also truly committed to the reasonable cause of the farmers", he pointed out.
And how did he manage to give the farmers their due? "Well, development of the remaining villages is not a problem at all. In fact we have already started work in some of the villages. Yes, getting every farmer a developed plot equivalent to five percent of their acquired agricultural land is a tough exercise, but we have begun the exercise and I am quite confident that we will be able to manage that as well". Kumar added.
According to him, "these issues could have been resolved decades ago if the governments of the day had taken care to give the farmers a patient hearing and taken the initiative to provide basic civic amenities in the small pockets of the erstwhile villages officially termed as 'abadis', where many old villagers continued to live".
"Instead of getting their due, the poor farmers received only rebuke, neglect and apathy while their old dwellings were labeled as encroachments", he lamented.
Kumar proposes to provide basic amenities like cement concrete roads and lanes, drinking water and sewage inside these 'abadi' pockets in each of the 54 erstwhile villages, which is seen as a landmark step towards letting the original inhabitants a taste of all the urbanisation around them.
Farmers Action Committee convenor Mahesh Awana is all praise for the new CEO. "If someone had shown such gesture in the past, our problems would have been resolved years ago; it is just one man who has made all the difference", he quipped.
