About 50 members of the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party who had planned to rally to the Raj Bhawan to protest against the State Government’s decision to allocate village land at Nainisar for setting up of an international residential school were arrested from the protest site near Parade Ground. They were later released at police lines.
Scores of party supporters assembled at the protest site on Monday morning raising slogans against the state government accusing it of corruption in the Nainisar land issue. The administration had deployed considerable number of police personnel at the protest site which was also barricaded to contain the protesters. Those who addressed the protesters on the occasion said that the State Government had ignored public interest while allocating land at Nainisar to a corporate group organisation for setting up an international school. They alleged that the land in question had been allegedly transferred to the Himanshu Educational Society of the Jindal group by unfair and illegal means. They said that land has lush green pastures and numerous trees of the burans and kafal which would be destroyed due to the government’s action.
The party leader PC Tiwari pointed out, “While the Congress party is opposing the land bill at the centre and stalling the parliament on the issue, on the other hand the Congress-led government in Uttarakhand gifting valuable land to industrialists for cheap.”
Others addressing the gathering said that a Van Panchayat is still functioning in Nainisar and this particular piece of land was used for animal grazing and miscellaneous works of society and villagers for ages. They stressed that the people have pledged to protect their land which the state government is trying to take away from them in order to provide it to big conglomerates.