Blood spills in water war - 4 farmers die in protest against urban drinking water project

JAIDEEP HARDIKAR

Aug. 9: Four farmers were killed in police firing as a protracted farmers’ agitation against an urban water-supply project in Pune district turned violent on Tuesday afternoon. Several farmers and 20 policemen were injured, two of them seriously. More than 300 protesters were rounded up. A strong crackdown restored traffic on the blocked Pune-Mumbai expressway, Pune rural police said. Around 1.30pm, more than 400 villagers, agitating for years against an urban water supply project they fear will divert water meant for farming, clashed with police. Encircled by the mob, a police officer opened fire, the superintendent of police (Pune rural) Sandeep Karnik said. “We fired in self-defence,” he said. “There was unfortunately no option…. When our men pleaded with them to disperse and lift their blockade, some of them pelted them with stones from behind.” The dead, who include a woman, have been identified as Moreshwar Sopan Sathe, 40, Shyam Waghu Tupe, 40, Maruti Barku Khirode, 35, and Kantabai Ankush Thakar, 45. Karnik said an inspector and an additional SP were among the policemen injured. The farmers of Gahunje village, 40km from Pune, have been opposed to the project since 2008 when work on it started. They stepped up their resistance recently when it emerged the authorities had been working silently on the project that will ensure 24-hour drinking water supply to urban dwellers under a civic body run by Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. The project of the Pimpri and Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), two industrial townships near Pune, is one of the pet ventures of Pawar’s nephew and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. It envisages laying two underground pipelines from the Pavna dam to the PCMC water pumping station. The civic body goes to the polls next year and Ajit wants to showcase the project as a trophy in a bid to retain power. The Congress, an ally of the NCP in the ruling coalition, is a bitter rival in the municipal corporation. The farmers, most of them loyalists of the local BJP legislator, are also opposed to giving land for pipelines and are upset the matter of compensation is hanging fire, though their anger is more about the diversion of irrigation water. For the last couple of years, Maharashtra has been witnessing violent protests against diversion of irrigation water for industry and urban drinking water purposes. The police said the BJP legislator, Sanjay Bhegade, had addressed a meeting of the farmers this morning and led a march on the construction site where the protesters allegedly smashed equipment and tried to torch government vehicles. They later blocked the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The firing rocked the Assembly, where the Sena-BJP combine stalled proceedings demanding an explanation. Home minister R.R. Patil, who is from the NCP, justified the firing and said it was in “self-defence”. Pune collector Vikas Deshmukh has ordered a judicial probe into the firing. Mandar Sathe of Pune-based NGO Prayas said the project would hit agriculture in the area as much of the land, irrigated by the Pavna river, is used for multi-crop farming. “Farmers have been lifting the water from the Pavna for generations. It is a prosperous sugar belt,” he said. Others feared losing their plots. “Some of us will lose land but everyone’s farming will be affected…. We won’t allow this project,” said Balasaheb Pingale of the BJP-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.

Source: The Telegraph