Having failed to force the Gujarat government to cancel the allotment of a huge chunk of agricultural land in Mahuva block of Bhavnagar district to detergent giant NIRMA, for a cement factory, the farmers have decided to carry out a protest march from Mahuva to Gandhinagar.

The march started from the cement factory site on March 3 and will conclude on March 17 in state capital Gandhinagar, covering a total distance of 350km. 

The farmers have been agitating against the proposed cement factory for last two years and have tried everything, including public meetings, marches, demonstrations, resolutions, court cases and presentations to the government officials, to force the Gujarat government to cancel the allotment.

The 268-hectare land in question, includes water bodies that have revived farming in this otherwise drought-prone region of Saurashtra.

Affected farmers launched the protests in May 2008, a month after the land allotment (Read the story, “This land is ripe for a lot of trouble”)

But two years hence nothing has changed.

After the Gujarat high court ruled in favour of the cement factory in April last year, the appeal petition against the high court order has been lying in the supreme court. 

With no signs of any affirmative action on the gound, the farmers in concurrence with the civil society that includes prominent Gandhians like Sanat Mehta, Chunibhai Vaidya, and Prakash Shah, decided to carry out the arduous protest march.

Earlier the Gujarat government has dealt with similar protests with brute force.

The proposed factory, according to the protestors, will be calamitous to the surrounding area, affecting the fertility of the agricultural land.