Why Residents Of This MP Village Want To Renegotiate A 13-Year-Old Land Deal

By Sanavver Shafi

Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh: More than a decade after Welspun Energy acquired farmland in Madhya Pradesh’s Anuppur district for a thermal power project, the plant is yet to be completed.

In May 2011, the company acquired 218.53 hectares of agricultural land from 246 farmers under the Madhya Pradesh government's Adarsh Rehabilitation Policy, 2002. Land was also purchased separately from two other farmers. The following year, Welspun launched the 1.32 GW (2X660 MW) super-critical coal-fired power plant.

In 2023, Adani Power Limited began acquiring shares of the project company and took full control by October 2024. Now being executed by its subsidiary, Anuppur Thermal Power Private Limited, the project has been expanded into an ultra-supercritical 3.2 GW (4x800 MW) plant, with an estimated cost of Rs 36,600 crore.

But while ownership of the project has changed hands, farmers say the terms of the original land acquisition agreement remain unresolved.

Affected farmers from the villages of Chhatai, Majhtoliya, Umrada and Kotma say that the original agreement made with Welspun was never honoured: either in spirit or law. 

Compensation was paid, but promises of employment, healthcare, education and unemployment allowances were abandoned within two years, they say.

Now as Adani Power Limited prepares to build the plant, the villagers are not just demanding a new agreement. They are asserting that they still have a legal right over the land. 

At the centre of this claim is Clause 23 of the Madhya Pradesh Adarsh Rehabilitation Policy, 2022, Sarpanch of Umrada village Akhilesh Singh said. 

The clause states that if a company fails to begin work or take possession of acquired land within more than ten years, the land must either be returned to the original owner or fresh acquisition proceedings must be carried out.

Legal experts argue that the transfer of land from Welspun to Adani was not carried out in accordance with either the Madhya Pradesh Adarsh Rehabilitation Policy, 2002 or the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, said Rahul Shrivastava, a lawyer. 

“According to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act, companies must obtain the consent of affected villagers before transferring the acquired land. The affected farmers are considering approaching the court to assert their rights,” Shrivastava said.

The 2013 law permits land transfers to other entities only with state government approval and the explicit consent of those affected. However, farmers in Anuppur allege that their land was transferred without consent. They have repeatedly filed objections, calling the process illegal.

Several villagers say they have repeatedly objected to the transfer and described it as illegal.

Jugal Kishore Rathore, leader of the Joint Contract Labour Union (CITU), echoed their concerns. 

See Also:

He said the state government must “save agriculture from destruction by returning the land to farmers under Clause 23.” 

Rathore also pointed out that Anuppur is a Scheduled Area governed by the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act and the Forest Rights Act. “No Gram Sabha was held before the land transfer. That alone makes it unlawful,” he said. “The acquired land has not been used for years. According to the rules, it should have been returned to the villagers.”

The farmers’ core demand is not just compensation or rehabilitation, it is that any new agreement for the project must be negotiated afresh, this time with Adani Power Limited. 

Until that happens, they say, they will not allow the company to use “even an inch of their land”. 

Promises made, promises broken

In 2012, Welspun Energy acquired over five acres of farmland from Ram Dayal Sahu (55), a farmer from Chhatai village in Anuppur district. “When the company people came, they showed us big dreams,” Sahu said. “They said our children will get jobs, a school and a hospital will be built in the village. We believed them and gave away our ancestral land.”

Welspun acquired a total of 360 hectares for its thermal power project—including 218.53 hectares of agricultural land—under the Adarsh Rehabilitation Policy. Each of the 248 farmers received Rs 2.5 lakh per acre and a one-time payment of Rs 16,000.

Apart from compensation, Welspun signed an agreement promising employment or a substitute wage. If it failed to provide a job to one member of every affected family, the company would pay a monthly grant equivalent to 17 days' wages, as set by the Labour Commissioner, for 200 days annually, over five years.

But according to Sahu, this allowance stopped within a year or two.

Thirteen years later, villagers say not a single job has materialised. “Even after all this time, the plant hasn’t been built and we haven’t been given any work,” said Rambahor (43) of Chhatai. “We can’t even farm on our land. We have to migrate to other cities and work as labourers.”

Chanda Bai, the current sarpanch of Chhatai, said: “We only got compensation, which is now useless. Our land is gone, and our children are still unemployed.”

The project received environmental clearance in 2012 for a 1.32 GW (2x660 MW) coal-fired power plant across Kotma, Chhatai, Majhtoliya and Umrada villages. Under Ministry of Environment rules, such clearance is granted only after No Objection Certificates from the Gram Sabha, Revenue Department and Forest Department.

Officials involved at the time could not be contacted.

However, Welspun never began construction, and its environmental clearance lapsed in November 2023. That same year, Adani Power Limited acquired the project and expanded the project into an ultra-supercritical plant, nearly tripling its original coal and water requirements.

The revised plan increased the project area to 371 hectares, including 312 hectares of private and 59 hectares of government land. Annual coal requirement rose to 13.3 million tonnes, and water demand doubled to 36 cubic metres per second, to be sourced from the Kewai and Son rivers.

In October 2024, Adani received Terms of Reference (ToR) approval for the revised project. The MoEFCC directed the company to conduct a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), including air pollution, biodiversity, and water use impacts within a 10-kilometre radius. Although a report has been prepared and public hearings are underway in the villages, villagers say the process has lacked transparency.

At one such hearing, attended by Additional Collector Dilip Kumar Pandey, Pollution Board official Mukesh Shrivastava, and Additional SP Israr Mansuri, villagers from four affected villages submitted a 14-point demand list.

“No decisions were taken on our demands,” Singh said.

While the administration called the hearing a success, local activists said it was just a formality to push through clearances.

New company, old contract

On May 15, 2025, a public hearing was held for environmental clearance. The district administration claimed around 1,500 villagers participated and called it a success.

But farmers said core issues, return of land, employment, revised compensation, weren’t even on the agenda. 

They accused the administration of going through the motions without addressing the grievances that had remained unresolved for more than a decade.

Adani officials insist that the project would bring economic benefits.  

Anurag Singh, the Project Head of Anuppur Thermal Power Project, claimed that environmental safeguards such as afforestation on 123 hectares, dust control through water sprinkling, and windproof walls for coal storage would minimise ecological harm. He said Adani Power Limited would launch health, education, and livelihood schemes through its foundation. According to Singh, 350 permanent and 250 contract jobs would be created during construction, with 550 permanent and 50 temporary positions in the operational phase.

But to farmers in Chhatai, Majhtoliya, Umrada and Kotma villages, these are familiar claims. “These were the same promises 13 years ago. Now we will not trust only promises. We want a concrete guarantee,” Urmeda Sarpanch Singh said. 

Manish Singh, a farmer from Umrada, said: “We also want development and employment. If we didn’t, why would we have given land to Welspun in the first place? But they cheated us. They didn’t even pay the unemployment allowance. How can we trust this company that isn’t even ready to sign an agreement?”

For years, the farmers have been petitioning local officials, holding demonstrations, and submitting memorandums.

Singh said, “Whenever we ask officials or local leaders about our demands, they say, ‘After so many years the plant is finally coming up, don't obstruct it now.’ Even our local MLA who supported us earlier has changed his stance. Now they say the company is promising you facilities. What more do you want?”

While waiting for development in 2024, farmers had begun cultivating their old plots. “This year we sowed crops on the land, but once Adani Power Limited got wind of it, they sent bulldozers to destroy our fields,” said a farmer. “They even posted armed guards who won’t let us come close to our own land.”

Villagers also alleged that despite the May 15 public hearing not being officially concluded, land-leveling work on the project site began in the last week of May. Protests by villagers forced a halt to the construction. 

“This shows the strength of community resistance,” said a farmer. “We’ve waited 13 years hoping for development. And now we are ready to wait for a new agreement.”

“But that’s just it,” Singh continued. “We’re not saying don’t build the plant. We’re saying don’t take our land without a fresh agreement. We gave it once in good faith and were betrayed. We won’t let that happen again." [101Reporters/VS]

This article is republished from 101 Reporters under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Also Read: