All land acquisitions put on hold in Chandigarh

The Centre has asked the Chandigarh administration to put on hold further land acquisitions under the Land Acquisition Act with immediate effect.

The missive from the Centre reached the administration on April 7 and it comes in the wake of the agitation launched by farmers demanding a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) into the land acquisition policy of the administration. The letter from the ministry of home affairs arrives when the Chandigarh administration is awarding compensation for the remaining 167 acres of land proposed to be acquired for the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park.

On more than one occasion, the administrator and advisor, Chandigarh administration, had locked horns on the issue of land acquisition, each supporting a diametrically opposite view.

The farmers of Manimajra and Daria villages have been demanding a probe by the CVC into the administration?s land acquisition policies. A delegation of farmers had also met UT advisor Pradip Mehra to submit a detailed representation, alleging that certain administration officials were hand-in-glove with the land-mafia.

The matter assumes significance as Chandigarh Technology Park?s phase I and II have been sanctioned as Special Economic Zones (SEZ) by the ministry of commerce. However, necessary approvals for designating phase III as an SEZ are yet to be received.

The ministry of home affairs has desired that in future the co-ordination committee and the Administrator?s Advisory Council having representatives of ministry of urban development and ministry of home affairs should vet such initiatives. The ministry of home affairs has further desired that the Chandigarh administration should implement the National Rehabilitation and Re-settlement Policy, 2007, and should get its Rehabilitation Policy also vetted from the concerned Ministry.

In a communication received by the Chandigarh administration, the ministry of home affairs has also directed a special audit of the projects that are being processed by the Chandigarh administration under a team headed by the Chief Controller of Accounts, Ministry of Home Affairs.

Sources in the Chandigarh administration told FE, ?Broadly, the audit will involve issues of inadequate compensation to farmers on land acquisition, complaints about exemption, violations where land was sold to private buyers or companies with reference to prevailing rules, allotment of land to IT park projects and the status about three cases, that of the medi-city, the film city and the theme-cum-amusement park.?

These projects are already under the CVC lens. The Government of India has further desired to have a special audit to see whether a transparent non-discriminatory process has been followed in allotting Government properties in consonance with the rules.