NOIDA: Ajay Kumar’s mornings would be as packed as anyone’s in prime working age could be. He would help out at the farms and had a day job to supplement the income, till he had to pack up and leave, his whole village in tow, in 2020. Mornings continue to keep Ajay busy. But he travels no further than the ‘chowk’ next to his family’s new house in Jewar Bangar, where the winter sun and a mat spread out on the road invite him to a game of cards soon after breakfast. Ajay is 30. His card companions are around the same age or younger. The game goes on till calls come from home – lunch is ready.And the pace, idyllic.”There’s no job here, no vocation. The airport site is not hiring locals. So, I’m sitting free, idle and playing cards,” he says, more insouciance than frustration in his demeanor. Back in Rohi, before their land was acquired for the Noida International Airport, Ajay’s father owned three bighas and a house spread over 500 gaj (414 square metres).The family’s main income came from farming and selling milk. The farms are gone and there’s compensation money sitting in the bank to help tide over the transition. Like Ajay, many youths have time to kill. But while an airport job, if it does come their way, is sought after, there’s no tearing rush to find employment elsewhere either. Over the last three years, since they gave up their homes and farms for the airport and moved lock, stock, barrel and cattle to the resettlement township in Jewar Bangar, the displaced families from six Jewar villages have been in reset mode. Lives in these villages orbited around farmland. Without it, the familiar way of living has come unmoored, amid a desire to step up into the template of urban life, now that social status is determined by the size of the house, not the acreage of farms.But the job market demands degrees, technical qualifications and experience that many of the local youth don’t possess. Arjun Singh (24), who idles around the game of cards, says it’s the best way to stay occupied, “since there is nothing else to do”. That’s not what Anuj Rajput can afford to do. At 22, he is a young father with responsibilities. Anuj put his driving skills to use to find a job that involved transporting construction material. Today, he makes Rs 400-500 a week driving tractors. It’s not much. But it’s better than nothing.”We had half an acre of agricultural land in Rohi. Now that we have given that land to the government, there is no work. But I have to work. I have a family to look after,” he says.Satinder Sharma (26), too, decided not to wait for the airport job to turn up and opened a garment store in the township. Two other shops have been bought by his father, but those are locked. Business has not been encouraging because of the restricted pool of customers. Jewar Bangar, 3km from Jewar town, is on its own. “There are very few customers. That’s why we keep the two other shops locked. Let’s see, we might start a grocery in one of them,” says Satinder.Arun Vir Singh, CEO of Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL), the state government’s special purpose vehicle for the project, says jobs will be provided to the village youths by Zurich AG, the concessionaire for the airport, in keeping with the concession agreement. It will be another year and a half before the airport is ready to launch passenger operations, which is scheduled for October 2024.”The land acquisition act makes it mandatory for the project proponent, and not the contractor or the builder, to give out jobs. Every villager is aware of that,” says Singh. But before that, skills training needs to be imparted. “Such courses have been started in the degree college here. We have also allotted 10 acres to set up a skill development university by the next financial year. The state government has allocated a budget for that and it is committed to create jobs for the youths at the airport,” he adds. Dhirendra Singh, the BJP MLA from Jewar, says chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the local leadership to develop avenues for skill development of locals. “I held a meeting with senior officials of the Tata group involved in the airport project for a skill development centre to train local youths,” he adds. Tata Projects Ltd has bagged the engineering contract for the airport from the concessionaire.Skills workshops and courses are being thought of for mobile repair, apparel stitching, embroidery and front desk as well as computer operator jobs. At Rajakiya Mahavidyalala, the government college in Rabupura, subjects like civil aviation, cinematography and fashion design have been introduced. “This has been done keeping in mind the Apparel Park, Film City and Noida International Airport projects,” says the MLA, adding talks have been held with Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) to start a skill development centre.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/after-the-reset-noida-airport-resettlers-pass-days-in-farm-void-jobs-hope/articleshow/97409242.cms