India’s Crorepati Farmers

We received Rs. 8 crore in the account... I have more money than I can ever spend in one life. This house is worth Rs. 3 crore. A few months ago, several videos went viral showing how farmers sold their land near Jewar airport and earned crores of rupees. You must have seen many such clips. How a farmer became a millionaire overnight. How a man had no money left to buy a tampered glass for his iPhone. Or that millionaire who still drives a rickshaw. 1 crore!! And you are telling me this? These videos show how some people suddenly became millionaires

and their lifestyle went crazy. And all this is true. What is being said about crores of rupees is true. What is being said about cars is also true. And what is being said about houses is something else. It is absolutely unreal and that is also true. Now we got all these things when we went to Jewar. We came to Jewar not once, but three times. We roamed the streets where hardly any media has reached. We went inside the house, sat in the kitchen, talked to a lot of people and understood the whole story.

But there is one part of this story that you have never seen. Now tell me one thing, if we have 1.6-3.3 acres of land, then at today's date, we young people are surviving by driving this rickshaw. There is a lot of loot. If you want to see loot anywhere in India, then see only in Jewar Airport, Gautam Buddhnagar district in Uttar Pradesh. So this thing, we have lost farming. The children here have also brought us here. I think this is the most beautiful house. And we also agree. Should I take off my slippers?

This is a complete house. Marble and all. There is lovely marble. The interior of this house is worth 3 crores. How much did you spend? Did you keep half of it? No, we only spent 1.5 lakh, no, 1.5 crore. 1.5 crores? From 1 crore to 3 crore. This happens all the time when you're building a house. Do you like it here or miss your village? Yes, I miss the village. When Jewar's Noida International Airport is completed, it will be one of the largest airports in Asia. To build it, the Uttar Pradesh government needed 6,000 acres of land,

which was divided into several villages. Obviously, the farmers had to be compensated for their land. In the first phase, they got Rs. 2,400 for every square metre. That is, those families who had good land suddenly realised that they were sitting on crores of rupees. After getting the money, they were relocated to this resettlement colony where every family got 50 square metres of land. So imagine, your agricultural land has been sold, you have been relocated, and with that, you have crores of rupees.

So how do you live a life? Like this. And the first thing you will see in this colony are the magnificent houses here. This is the chief's house. The chief's house? It is very well built. It seems to be the best house in the entire area. How much did it cost you to do all this? Rs. 3 crores. This house is worth Rs. 3 crores? Yes. I think we came to know about rehabilitation and compensation in Jewar and I have become a house expert after this. Like how a house should be built, or whose interior decoration is better.

So after getting the money, most of the farmers built magnificent houses and some people had very emotional reasons behind it. "She was married here into a hut, but had a lot of gold." "She had a wish that someday she would build a nice house." So when you started, did you know that you would spend this much money? Or did you spend it in the process? I spent it in the process. Just think about it. Those who have been living in small cramped houses for generations, they suddenly got a chance to build their dream house.

Here, someone has not planned and spent Rs. 3 crores on their house. It so happened that money kept coming and rooms were added to the rooms and gradually a normal house became a magnificent property worth Rs. 3 crores. And because of this, most of the houses here look like a statement instead of a house. Because everyone probably wanted to say that we have also made something magnificent and beautiful. The second thing you will notice here is cars, especially SUVs. I can mostly see the youth driving the SUVs.

He got married 11 days ago, and they got one Defender and 25 Scorpios. - So the marriage took place very recently? - Yes. Save for 10-20 houses, every house has a car. And the younger generation is most happy with this change. We were called here and told that he is the most famous man in this colony. He is the most popular man in our colony. Why are you driving a rickshaw? Have you invested anywhere else? I have made a house. I have bought two Cretas. I have been driving a rickshaw since childhood.

But you bought two Cretas. You are also fond of cars, but you like to drive a rickshaw. Look, I work hard. He is the rickshaw driver from a viral video. He has received Rs. 1.5 crores. There are two Cretas in his house. He gets rent from the shop. But he drives a rickshaw because he likes to do this. I have more money than I could ever spend in one life. Sahil is 19 years old. He has never done any work. But according to him, he has more money and little life. I'm 19, but I haven't lifted a single brick.

I have only had fun in life. How much compensation did you receive? We received 10 crore in 2019. Now, we have 30-40 crore. I have bought a car worth more than 20 lakh There's no dearth of anything in my life. It's all Allah's blessing. But some people have also invested very smartly. I have opened two agencies. One is in Jhajjar, and the other is located here. What kind of agency is this? This is a rickshaw, auto and electric scooter. I got a little money. There was no point in wasting the money.

The children would starve to death. I thought it better to invest the money and create jobs. This is Dayanatpur village. And this village has not been shifted anywhere. But this village is changing rapidly. Renovation and reconstruction work is going on everywhere. If you look at it from the outside, this is the same story that you have heard so far. A farmer who suddenly became a millionaire. And a man who used to go to the office by bike till yesterday. Today, he travels by Innova High Cross.

This is the famous house of Dayanatpur that looks like a luxury villa from the outside. We met these people. And all these expensive cars were really parked outside. In a recent wedding, the coming of two Defenders is also true. And the children here talk about all this as if it is a story of a superman. But there was a person among all these stories whom it was very important to meet. Are you from the media? Yes. I am the iPhone guy. I am the guy with no tampered glass on my iPhone. Oh, that was you!

So you must have become famous after that. When I got the compensation, I bought it for 90,000 rupees. Now I don't have money to get a tampered glass. I have run out of money. I am using it out of necessity now. Look at this. Did you change the tamper or not? I changed the phone. You changed the phone? Which phone do you have now? I don't have any. You don't have any? Then you didn't buy a new phone? The people from the media broke my phone. He became famous with this video. And now he is going to buy a 17 Pro.

This is the same house. I have invested 3 crore here. Look at the house. I have invested 3 crores here. I think we have come to a viral area where every person here has gone viral. Hello. We just met. Is this your house? Yes. Okay. This viral clip made him a meme, a joke but the real story was much more complex than this viral clip. How long does the compensation last? One can only get a year's worth of rations from that money. One can only get a year's worth of wheat. What will we do with that?

One has to think about marriage, disease, and other contingencies of life. But we spent all the money on building these expensive villas. For many families, these crores were not a start but their end. Because they spent the money. They either bought a house or cars. They don't have any income or land. Many of them don't even have a job. Many families already had a lot of money. So their lives didn't change that much. But many people had never seen so much cash in their lives. After receiving the compensation, our lives have changed a lot.

How? Tell us how. The fun that we like, what we need at this time, look at this 18-year-old with Bullet. In our house, we have 2-3 Bullets. In a few days, our Scorpio will get delivered. Then you'll start touring in the Scorpio? Yes, and it will be a hell lot of fun. The young people were having fun, while the old people were disappointed. Because their money was about to run out. And this is the story that many people told you. When we got the money, we put it in these mansions. What will the public do after that?

There are a lot of people who say we got Scorpio and Bullets But that's not an investment. This is Virendra Singh. At the age of 35, he should have a job, but he's unemployed. There's unemployment. Villagers depend on agriculture. He's from the Rohi village. He lives in this resettlement colony. He got money for his land, but he says the money will run out. In the village, someone had 1.6 acres of land. We received Rs. 1 crore in exchange for that land. After getting Rs. 1 crore, people said they got houses and vehicles.

And soon they ran out of money. People say we have grown a lot. We didn't grow; we got destroyed. Which word did he use? "Destruction." It's a strong word. When he was given the proposal for resettlement, he wasn't disappointed with it. But today, he plays cards with his friends. The reality is that we don't have jobs here. They ought to have given us jobs, but they didn't. They took our ancestral land but have given us no jobs in return. What about our children and their livelihoods?

They have hanged us. They tricked us by lying to us about jobs. We'll talk about the promises of a job in a while. But you need to understand that this is a farming family. Land is not just an asset for them. It's their livelihood. Now that the land is gone, people are realising the value of land. We've seen videos of people who built big houses. But this isn't the truth. How many landowners are there in the village? 2% or 1%. How many farmers are there? Viral videos show only 1-2% people who had big land.

Other people only had 1.6-3.3 acres of land. Now they're wondering if they got the right compensation. When the government acquires land for public purposes, for agricultural land, it gives 4 times the market rate in rural areas and 2 times the market rate in urban areas as compensation. Jewar is a rural area, and 93% of the income comes from farming. According to this, the farmers of Jewar got 4 times the value. Right? Wrong. Land acquisition for the airport took place in 4 phases. Before Phase 1 acquisition, in 2015, the UP government

classified the 8 villages near Jewar as urban. There was no announcement or newspaper notice. The first strange sign was that there was no announcement after the panchayat elections. People had voted but the result wasn't declared. Because the village was no longer a village. When we were declared an urban area in 2015, there was no advertisement in the newspaper, nor did they hold any meetings. The panchayat election was cancelled. The voting did take place, but the result was not declared.

Land acquisition started after this. Because the rural land was made urban, farmers were getting half the value. Many farmers talk about this. For example, Rohi village's chief, Tejpalji. He has 2 Scorpios and a huge house. Yet, even after receving an exorbitant compensation, he feels cheated. We were not satisfied. They declared the land urban. Many small farmers agree with this. They didn't want to pay 4 times. That's why they first declared the village as urban. Because in UP, there was a government with full majority.

They even got the Governor's assent. That's why our compensation only doubled instead of quadrupling. Ravinder Singh is in the army and he's from this village. In December 2018, after his leave, he came home for 3 weeks. As soon as he reached, he saw his villagers protesting. That's why farmers went to the Allahabad High Court in April 2019. But the court ruled against them and the acquisition was carried out at half the rate. It's still referred to as "Cargo" on paper.

Airport Cargo Blaze, Kishorpur. In the village, we should get 4 times the rate. As we started talking to people, we came to know that low rates are not the only problem. Many have not even got low rates. We first received 20.95 lakh. In another, we got around 28-28.5 lakh. And currently it's 40-42 lakh. The farmer whose land was acquired first, got a compensation of 21 lakhs per 1.3 acres. But when his cousin's land was acquired, he got double compensation. It doesn't look good. Don't you feel bad that your land was sold in the 1st Phase?

What can we do? The farmers who cooperated got punished. And because of this, they started protesting. Ravinder, who is from the army, was one of the protesting farmers. The farmers decided to raise their voice on the highway. So, they left for the highway from the temple. On the way to the expressway, the police arrested them and sent them to jail for 14 days. In September 2019, around 50 farmers were arrested on the way to the Yamuna Expressway. They were jailed for 14 days. In those 14 days, around 30-40% of the farmers were aggreed

and their files were filled. The leaders who were in jail claim that the administration got the signatures of many people. By the time the leaders came out, the atmosphere had cooled down. In January 2020, when the government took over the land, it led to chaos. The sub-divisional district magistrate was injured, and an FIR was filed. The names of the farmers who didn't fill out the files were put in the case. The FIR had the names of 34 people who were farmers who hadn't signed yet. The people who threw bricks ran away and were never traced.

Ravinders says that people who pelted stones were never traced. It's been 6 years and the case is still in court. Two accused have died waiting for the hearing. After giving the land, the farmers kept their hope on another promise. That was a job. But when we went to this colony in the afternoon on a weekday, the young people were sitting there. It looks like life is set but there are a lot of unemployed people. 18-year-olds own a Bullet. I sit at the shop. There's not much work. I'm 19 and I haven't lifted a brick in my life.

Our Scorpio will be delivered in a few days. Life's fun. The young people here haven't realised this yet because some compensation is still pending. But there's a reason why the farmers thought it was a good deal. First of all, in 2019, they were promised two things. First, they'd get money for their land and a government job for each family member. If you don't want a job, you'll get Rs. 5.5 lakhs. They have us two choices: a job or 5.5 lakh. Most people accepted the job instead of Rs. 5.5 lakhs.

People who chose jobs haven't received a job offer yet. They've come here and protested. This is Anil Kumar from Kishorpur. He was 18 years old when he was compensated, and now he's 25 years old. At that time, we were confident that they'd give us a government job according to our qualifications. But they rescinded. We went home but not a single family had a job here that they were promised. The youth here earn their livelihood by driving e-rickshaws. I have two, and I live by that.

Even Ajay Pratap's son, who is an MBA graduate, left his private job because he was promised a government job. My own son hasn't got a job yet. My son left his job and said he'd get a job at the airport. Which he never got. Some people say they didn't get a job. Others say the government even rescinded from their promises of plots. If a poor farmer has a buffalo in his village, he can sell it for Rs. 50,000. What did we get? We were just given this 50 square meter land. This is Virendra.

His land and house were on the airport's land. That's why he was given a plot of 50 sq. in a resettlement colony. He says he got a plot of 50 sq. for his family and animals. Some have set up a hearth outside their home. They cook their food there. Some are keeping their livestock in the empty land that they can find. There's no place for a cow or a buffalo so they live on the road. If you go to R&R, they make it useless. There's no marketing facility. What's in it? What's the development there?

People have built their houses on their own. What's the development there? They just made one road. The sewer line is blocked in the same way it was before. It's useless. The water doesn't pass from there. And that's true. This sewer line hasn't been cleared for days. So, this is the condition of the sewer line next to these magnificent houses. Now we felt that we had heard everything. But then Ajay ji told us something which shocked us. He took us to the airport boundary and from there, pointing towards the field, told us something.

These dilapidated houses are illegal. These illegal houses have been there for quite a while. They have not signed the file. They have not given their signature. You have seen the old houses. And all these houses are illegal. Look behind. This house is illegal. The land on which these houses are built was acquired by the government in 2019. After which no one should be allowed to build a house on the land. Look inside. There are two floors. If you go that way, there are thousands or lakhs of houses.

This is a new type of scam. According to the compensation policy, you will not only get money for the land, but you will also get money for the structure built on the land. So if your house is small, you will get money according to that. But if it's a three-story villa, you will get money according to that, which can be worth crores. So a deal was set up between the PWD officials and the farmers. The farmer said that he will build a big house. The PWD official said that he will give you compensation according to that.

And this compensation will be split 50-50. The house was built 50-50. It is a business. What difference does it make? Today, there are three-story houses standing in the middle of the fields. None of these houses is functional. A house worth 10 crores and a farmer with 1.6 acres of land, and such a compensation that doesn't make any mathematical sense. Can a farmer with 1.6 acres of land build a house on 3.3 acres of land? For the land, you get Rs. 1 crore, and the house is worth Rs. 10 crore.

Is that possible? And this is the divide you will see between these people. Some people have beautiful houses with Scorpio and Defenders. While others play cards and drive an e-rickshaw to pay their electricity bills. Some people had a lot of land and got crores of rupees. Some people didn't have land and didn't get much money. Some people cleverly build a house to get more money. It's a loot. If you want to see the biggest loot in India, then come to Jewar Airport, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh.

It's a loot, sir. We know that there are many shortcomings in this scheme, which makes farmers unhappy. Farmers also have their personal choices behind their problems. Farmers who bought land, shops, or invested in business with their compensation money have somehow made a compromise with this scheme. But the farmers who couldn't do this are now realising that managing money is also a skill that no one has ever taught them.