“I got more than Rs.2 crore by selling nearly three acres of agricultural land at Sihi village, now Sector 83-84. I purchased six acres in a village in Mahendergarh district, built up a ‘kothi’ (bungalow) and bought a SUV,” Kanwar Yadav, 48, told IANS.
“I never thought that money would finish one day. I had to sell my SUV after one and a half years. Now I am working as a private security guard in a building on my own land,” he added.
His story is similar to that of many farmers who once owned land on the stretch between Gurgaon and Manesar.
Rajender Singh, Kanwar Yadav, Dharmender, Ramesh, Omprakash, Leela Ram, and Narender Singh, Mahesh Yadav, to name just a few, are from villages like Sikanderpur, Badha, Nawada, Rampura, Nakhrolla, Manesar, Narsinghpur, Mohamadpur and Naurangpur About 90 percent of the farmers from these villages sold their agricultural land to private builders either out of fear or willingness or greed.
Mahesh Yadav, 34, quit his job as a Haryana Police constable a few years ago when he received more than Rs.1.5 crore by selling land.
“He used to celebrate and give parties on the birthdays of his family members. Once he organized a party to celebrate the birthday of his pet. He drove a Mahindra Scorpio for two years. Now, he works as the driver of a private vehicle,” said an elderly resident of Sikanderpur village.
Mahender Singh, 50, received close to Rs.4 crore by selling nearly five acres of land in July 2008. After buying 10 acres of cultivable land in a village near Dharuhera in the adjoining Rewari district, he bought a Mitsubishi Pajero. After 18 months he replaced it with a Tata Safari that he sold in early 2012 and now drives a Maruti Swift.
“My seven-member family survives on the little rent that comes from my plot in Gurgaon city. I had never thought it would come to this,” Mahender Singh rued.
Ramesh, 38, has a similar story. After getting nearly Rs.80 lakh in 2006, he purchased some agriculture land in Rewari district, opened a hardware store and bought a Hyundai Santro car. By 2011, he closed the store, sold the Santro, and now he drives a
three-wheeler of his own.Omprakash, 40, of Rampura village now works as the assistant of a sub-contractor, building flats on the land in sector 82 that includes five acres that were once his.
“I had an emotional attachment with my land, but I sold it because there was a strong rumour that the government would acquire it,” Omprakash said.
“Many of the semi-illiterate farmers and their families, in the absence of proper guidance and experience, got into the habit of overspending without generating proper sources of regular income,” Anurag Bakshi, a former Indian Revenue service (IRS) officer, told IANS.
“They insisted on buying costly cars and building a bigger house than their neighbours’. There would be competitions in hosting lunches to which hundreds of villages were invited. They spent blindly on their marriage ceremonies,” Bakshi added.
And one day, the money just ran out, leaving them high and dry.-from the IndianExpress
6 replies on “And one day the money ran out”
So what do you want us to do? Empathize with these fools? Do you and me or anyone else like us able to spend money like this. It take a lot of stupidity and mindless spending to run out of 3-4 crores in two years. Most of us probably earn salaries of 5-20 lakhs. We manage to save a bit of it after all the taxes, the tax saving investments, normal expenses, EMIs, vacations, etc. And these people go ahead and burn 2 crores a year. I don’t have any sympathy for such characters.
As the years go by and the hair starts getting grayer,I find myself shifting from a “zero tolerance for fools” attitude to a more sympathetic one !
Belonging to a family which is into farming,I can understand the anguish of a landowner who was once a proud tiller of his own land and now is working as a security guard.
I guess the main point is that everyone should be financially literate.This brings to my pet peeve-Why dont our schools teach the basics about money management?
That I agree with….
I was discussing this very issue with my boss in office one day over lunch.. the phenomenon of villagers making lots of money then ending up spending all of it. Its like a lottery for them, and they don’t know how to safely keep it.
But think of it, does one really require financial literacy to know that if you spend at the rate of 2crores a year the money is going to run out. There were a few smart farmers, who went further out and bought more land with the money.
None the less, what’s the other alternative. Think of a situation where the buyer says I will not pay you cash upfront, bur rather put it in a FD for you. You get interest every month, spend that that (0.75% per month of 4crores is 3lakhs per month, much more than what will get a family a more than comfortable life in semi urban areas. But will the seller ever agree o such an arrangement. He wants to see the money upfront.
Let me give you another insight, though I’m not sure i’m entirely correct here. You don’t hear of such stories from farmers from Maharashtra from outskirts of Mumbai/Pune, or from Hyderabad or Bangalore. Only from Haryana. Why is that? The culture. I have stayed in Gurgaon for 3 yrs. Haryanvis have what I can call “tav” in hindi. The moustache twirling feeling of superiority and the need to show off and feel bigger and better than others around them. Now imagine how this gets fueled on having a few crores under your mattress. They go bonkers.
People start making movies so they can act in them. They buy the most expensive cars etc and other phenomenon. Remember the case last year where a bunch of farmers in expensive SUVs killed a toll collector at a toll booth on the Delhi-Jaipur highway outside of Gurgaon. Are you telling me they couldn’t afford toll? No, its just an expression of “devil I care” and no one can tell me what to do, I am my own master. In some way this attitude extends to money also. “I can do what I want with my money.”
Yes, known stories all across Gurgaon . The one who bought 6 acres of land in mahendergarh will be hoping one day again , a builder will come and buy it for 12 crores..
The song” baby baith Pajero me, tera happy birthday manayenge ” comes from these folks 🙂
The reasons schools don’t teach money management is because it’s not part of syallbus 😉 plus who from the teacher community knows it.
Blowing of 20000 is lack of financial knowledge. Blowing of crores is foolhardy.no sympathy to hard working farmer here 🙂 the guy minted crores in advance as an annuity for generations to come . Do you think they didn’t know cash flows when they were actually farming ? Didn’t they know that they will get payment once the crop reaches Mandi..
And now these farmers will now ask for loan waivers, block highways for reservation ..
It’s the same story in Navi Mumbai. In Navi Mumbai this happened around 1995-2000 and hence people have forgotten about this.