The month-long protest spearheaded by the anti-GAIL gas pipeline activists at Mukkom and surrounding regions has slightly mellowed down with the revamped compensation package of the State government.
Majority of the protesters are now content with the new package that also addresses the concerns of small land holders in the project area.
District-level meeting
Action committee leaders who held a district-level meeting to discuss their stance in the wake of the new decision of the government hinted that an agitation without the support of majority of the victims would not be a successful move in the present circumstances.
They said they would meet some of the victims personally in the area to once again crosscheck their feedback on the new package. “The main issue is that most of the residents in the area are now scared of police brutality in case of any future agitation against the project. Those who have already faced the police action are now very much upset to continue with any mode of agitation,” said Basheer Puthiyottil, vice chairman of a local action committee against the pipeline project.
He said the land holders in the area were in a peculiar situation to content with whatever they were offered by the government as compensation and it could never be considered as a satisfactory remedy to the issues already raised by the people against the project citing security flaws, violation of existing land takeover norms, and poor negotiations.
Local body members of Unnikulam panchayat where the anti-GAIL protest was at its zenith, said the latest package announced by the government, especially the ₹5-lakh special compensation for those who owned below 10 cents of land in the project area, was seemingly satisfactory to the people in the area. However, they pointed out that there was some lack of clarity in the measures taken to determine the land value of small holders.
“As per the latest compensation package, the fair value of land is fixed on the basis of how many cents one owns in the project area. Though it may sound a big amount, those who hold below five cents of land may not get the projected benefit,” said Unnikulam panchayat president E.T. Binoy. He pointed out that the fair value should be fixed by estimating the land in cents as it would give the people a clear picture of their compensation.
Meanwhile, GAIL authorities said the revised compensation package was very much rewarding to even small land holders in the area. Along with the compensation amount, their demand to lay the pipeline in a convenient alignment by minimising the land usage too would be considered as per the request, they said.