LAKHIMPUR KHERI, Aug 4: A silent revolution is taking place in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh, or so it seems. The Mayawati Government, in a bid to undo past injustices, has leased out agricultural land to about 18,000 landless peasants -- most of them belonging to the SC/ST sections -- during the past two months. Close scrutiny however exposes a game of vote-bank politics and a keen struggle between big land-owners and Dalit farmers.

Confirming the handover of land to Dalit farmers, Kheri district magistrate K M Sant says the Government has freed at least 7,000 acre of its land from the clutches of influential landlords and allotted it to 8,000 landless peasants during the past two months. Besides, over 9,500 peasants have been ensured possession of the 9,000 acres of land leased out to them by the Government from time to time during the past 15-20 years. Resisting the Government move, the land-owners started campaigning that Sikh farmers were being harassed and evicted from their lands. Two Punjab ministers, Captain Kanwaljit Singh and Madan Mohan Mittal, visited the Terai last month. But the ministers during their meeting with Chief Minister Mayawati could not name any specific instance of harassment or eviction, Sant claims.

He says that since the UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Arrangement Act 1971, prohibits anyone to own more than 12.5 acre of agricultural land, the big land-owners had divided their holdings into several units of 12.5 acre each and registered them in different names, both genuine and fictitious.

``The tragedy of this district is that influential people have forcibly occupied the land belonging to either Government or small farmers and all efforts to remove such illegal occupations have been stalled by them,'' Sant claims.

Among the rich and prominent land-owners, whose lands are now with the Government, are Saraswati Pratap Singh, Congress MLA and erstwhile King of Isanagar Estate (he willingly surrendered 400 acre to the Government), Tej Narain Trivedi (surrendered 600 acre), Nirvendra Kumar Mishra alias Munna (both ex-MLAs), B P Awasthi and Chunni Lal Seth, claims Sant. Sant says an advocate, Anoop Shukla, was arrested under the Anti-Goonda Act when he refused to vacate the 34 acre land of the sugarcane department.

As per information gathered by the district administration there were over two dozen persons, mostly Sikhs owning 200 to 500 acre of land in Kheri.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.