Off Mumbai-Pune Expressway: At the start of this week, Lata Tupe could be seen dressed like any other young married woman in the village of Sadawli in Maharashtra, a two hour drive from Mumbai. Her sari was clean but faded, her wrists wore the traditional thin bangles that confer marital status.
No more. She is dressed today in the white sari that confers upon her the new position of a widow. She is 23. In her tiny hut, her 3 year old son plays at her knees.
His father, Shyamlal, was among the 3 farmers who were shot by the police on Tuesday as a protest turned a tragic corner.Shyamlal was fighting for his life when he joined that demonstration against the state government. His father owned three acres of land till 1972 when the government acquired most agricultural land in this part of south Maharashtra to build the Pawna Dam. Shyamlal's father, like other farmers in the region, moved to Mumbai and worked at a mill for four years, saving up so he could buy a new farm.
The new plot of 1.5 acres was located not far from his old land. In 1999, the government forced him to sell another half acre for the new expressway being built to connect Pune to Mumbai.
Shyamlal's father died in 2000. Till this week, the one acre that the family owned supported not just Shyamlal and his wife and son, but his 2 brothers and his mother as well.
This land too, the government has decreed, is needed for a new pipeline to send water from the Pavna Dam to the region of Pimpri- Chinchwad, some 60 kms away, the land acquisition process had already started.
Shyamlal's family believed that if they did not protest in the demonstration, they would be giving up their only asset without a fight
''How were we to know that the police would open fire? I don't know about the compensation, but it's perhaps time to commit suicide," says Shyamlal's sister-in-law, Shanta.
No more. She is dressed today in the white sari that confers upon her the new position of a widow. She is 23. In her tiny hut, her 3 year old son plays at her knees.
His father, Shyamlal, was among the 3 farmers who were shot by the police on Tuesday as a protest turned a tragic corner.Shyamlal was fighting for his life when he joined that demonstration against the state government. His father owned three acres of land till 1972 when the government acquired most agricultural land in this part of south Maharashtra to build the Pawna Dam. Shyamlal's father, like other farmers in the region, moved to Mumbai and worked at a mill for four years, saving up so he could buy a new farm.
The new plot of 1.5 acres was located not far from his old land. In 1999, the government forced him to sell another half acre for the new expressway being built to connect Pune to Mumbai.
Shyamlal's father died in 2000. Till this week, the one acre that the family owned supported not just Shyamlal and his wife and son, but his 2 brothers and his mother as well.
This land too, the government has decreed, is needed for a new pipeline to send water from the Pavna Dam to the region of Pimpri- Chinchwad, some 60 kms away, the land acquisition process had already started.
Shyamlal's family believed that if they did not protest in the demonstration, they would be giving up their only asset without a fight
''How were we to know that the police would open fire? I don't know about the compensation, but it's perhaps time to commit suicide," says Shyamlal's sister-in-law, Shanta.
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