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.The ongoing protests have received limited attention in mainstream media, but it seems the Gujarat government is taking the agitation seriously. The state Cabinet has discussed it and officials are debating options to address farmer concerns – including a revised compensation policy.It started with poles on farmlandPower 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. They say power companies raise incomes from those very lines for decades together. Farmer leaders argue that they pay regular land revenues, so why should power companies generate incomes from infrastructure built on their land for years after making only a one-time payment. Farmer groups say that’s unfair, and they want the compensation rules rewritten.Protests spread across the stateThe anger first became visible in Jetpur and Moti Marad, under protests led by farmer leader Bharatsinh Zhala, Vijaybhai Ugreja, Naresh Patel and others. Sarpanches from 22 villages boycotted a meeting called by the district collector and local BJP leaders faced pushback from villagers.But this isn’t a one-district issue. Gujarat is currently laying nearly 100 high-voltage power corridors stretching about 500 km across roughly 20 districts. This is being done as part of a plan to evacuate 135 GW of electricity.Farmer organisations estimate this could affect close to 5.5 lakh farming families and consume nearly 3,800 hectares of farmland. Farmers in 14 districts have already got notices about the poles coming up on their land, and construction work has begun in six.On June 15, farmers under the joint banner of Kisan Congress and Kisan Sangharsh Samiti took out a large tractor rally from Shantipura Circle to Gandhinagar, with more than 1,000 tractors joining from Surat, Morbi, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Bhavnagar, Kutch and north Gujarat. Farmer leaders at the rally accused companies – including Adani – of forcibly putting up poles, and they alleged that farmers who protest are sometimes roughed up by police.More recently, Kisan Congress leaders announced a foot march starting from Vrajvani village in Kutch and ending at a large gathering in Dwarka. Farmer organisations say the issue is no longer about just compensation but about rewriting the policy governing transmission corridors through private farmland.They demand four times the market price for land under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, a monthly rent of Rs 50,000 for every pole on their land, and a one-time settlement of Rs 2 crore per pole. The Aam Aadmi Party has also held its own farmer convention on the issue and has warned of separate protests.The issue reaches the Gujarat CabinetWith protests spreading, a Gujarat Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reportedly agreed, with unusual unanimity, that farmers deserve far more compensation than they get.But no final number has been announced yet. Instead, the Cabinet has decided to first hold talks with farmer organisations and representatives before drafting a new policy. Officials are studying the legal side of the issue. A proposal will then go to the chief minister.In 2022, Gujarat had doubled the compensation rate for land falling under transmission corridors, from 7.5% to 15% of land value. Farmers say even that isn’t enough, given how much value and usability their land loses.Farmers write to Prime MinisterWith no immediate breakthrough, farmer leaders decided to take their demands directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.On June 22, Zhala sent a detailed memorandum to the prime minister. His main ask: change the Union government’s rules so that official notices about transmission lines list the names of affected farmers and their exact land survey numbers – not just village names. Right now, he says, this gap lets authorities and power companies start digging and installing poles without real consent from farmers, sometimes with police backup.This story was first published on Vibes of India and is republished with permission.