India to examine protest deaths

By Ram Dutt Tripathi
BBC News, Lucknow

Farmers in India say their needs are being increasingly neglected

The government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has ordered an inquiry into the deaths of four farmers during clashes with the police on Wednesday.

The clashes - which injured 50 people including policemen - took place in Noida, a suburb of the capital Delhi.

The farmers were demanding compensation for land recently acquired by the Greater Noida industrial authority.

A state government official said that the judicial inquiry would examine all aspects of the disturbances.

The government has already announced financial compensation to dependents of the victims.

It has also transferred officials allegedly responsible for mishandling the issue and appointed a new chairman of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority.

But the state government has rejected farmers' demands for more compensation, arguing that it has already been paid them at a mutually agreed rate.

Critics argue that that the announcement of the inquiry was done in part to silence opposition criticism of the killings.

They have condemned the deaths as "unprovoked firing on innocent and unarmed farmers".

Opposition Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav termed the killings as "murders" and demanded the guilty men be punished.

Two of India's main political parties - the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party - have also condemned the killings.

In India, the acquisition of land for expansion of cities and industrialisation has become a very emotive issue.

Farmers have often opposed "forceful acquisitions" and have demanded increased rates of compensation for loss of livelihood and land.

Some experts say the agricultural land is shrinking due to urbanisation and industrialisation and this may endanger food security in a country with a population of more than one billion.