Gandhian Protest! Fed Up With Corrupt Babus, Farmer Ties Cattle To Officers' Cars

On Wednesday, a 35-year old man, Bhupendra Singh, from Sironj village in Madhya Pradesh tied his buffalo to the nayab tehsildar’s car in resistance to the bribe that the officer demanded from him.

Singh alleged that the officer demanded Rs 25,000 to settle his land records of his family.

“I have been running behind the naib tehsildar for the past six months as we want to settle the land records of the family but he refuses to do my job till I don’t pay him the money. I don’t have the money and the only valued possession with me is my buffalo so I tied it to his car,” Bhupendra Singh said to the media.

However, the Naib Tehsildar Sidharth Singhal denied the charges and blamed Singh for putting a whole show to gain publicity.

Officer Singhal refused to make a statement on the settlement of the land records of Singh that is pending with him.

Singh also wrote a memorandum to the State Chief Minister, Kamal Nath and sub-divisional magistrate briefing on the atrocities the officer put on him to earn quick money.

SDM Sanjay Jain has accepted the memorandum and assured Singh that he would look into the matter and on the allegation made against officer Singhal.

However, the classic case of Singh became a trend-setter for the distressed farmers in Madhya-Pradesh as two similar cases surfaced in the state. The other two farmers also strung their buffaloes to the cars of the alleged corrupt officers.

Farmer Bhupat Raghuvanshi, a resident of Patharia faced the same situation and wrote a letter to Chief Minister Kamal Nath. The letter said, “Government officer was demanding money to enter my name in the land records. The nayab tehsildar had been giving one after the other date for the last seven months to complete the work in order to pressurize his demands.

“Every time I visit his office, he gives me the next date. This had been happening for seven months now. Now let him sell the buffalo and get his money,” Raghvanshi told media.

Another case was reported by the Times of India from the state’s Tikkamgarh district. Lakshmi Yadav also leashed his buffalo to the officer’s car at Khargapur tehsil office who according to him asked for 50,000 to settle his land case.

The method was widely adopted to bring the case to the notice of administration. According to these farmers, they could only pay the hefty bribe by selling the cattle they possess.

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