Over 5,000 Gujarat Farmers Seek Permission to Die as Govt Acquires Land for Power Facility
Harshad Patel, Collector, Bhavnagar, said that the farmers had dropped their letters demanding permission for "icchha mrityu", at the registry branch of the collectorate.
Ahmedabad: Over 5,000 people in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district, battling against the possession of land acquired by a state power utility, have written letters to authorities seeking permission to die, a farmers' body leader on Tuesday claimed.
"A total of 5,259 people, comprising farmers and their family members from 12 affected villages, have sought "icchha mrityu (right to die) as the land they cultivate is being forcibly snatched by the state government and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL)," claimed Narendrasinh Gohil, a local farmer and a member of Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an organisation fighting for farmers' rights.
He claimed that the letters, signed by these farmers and their kin, have been sent to the President of India, the Prime Minister and the chief minister of Gujarat.
Harshad Patel, Collector, Bhavnagar, said that the farmers had dropped these letters, in which they have demanded permission for "icchha mrityu", at the registry branch of the collectorate.
The registry branch receives and dispatches all the letters of the collectorate.
The collector, however, did not specify the number of farmers who had written or signed on these letters. In the letter, the farmers accused the state government, and GPCL, of using police force to get them to vacate the land which the farmers claimed was being tilled by them for several years now.