Gujarat’s farmers are raising protests on multiple fronts these days. Their biggest complaint is about the electricity poles and high-tension power lines being put up on farmlands. The Congress party has been saying that the Union government’s crop insurance scheme has excluded Gujarat’s farmers for years. Both these issues have snowballed into a larger story of farmer distress – and the anger on the ground is rising. https://thewire.in/rights/farmer-protests-spread-across-gujarat-forcing-the-government-to-rethink-its-policies
Power companies have been putting up electricity poles and high-tension transmission lines across farms in many districts of Gujarat. These “transmission corridors” are being built to carry electricity generated from Gujarat’s expanding solar and wind energy projects, particularly in Kutch, Saurashtra and parts of north Gujarat.
Farmers say that once a pole goes up, that patch of land is gone for good. The overhead power lines prevent farming by make it difficult to operate tractors and harvesters, and lower the productivity and value of their land.
Farmers are compensated, but the one-time paymets are too low, they say, and don’t come close to covering what they lose, year after year.
03/07/2026