Farmers welcome Centre?s move on land acquisitions

The decision of the home ministry to put on hold all land acquisitions under the Land Acquisition Act will stall work at the IT park for which land acquisition was in progress but the decisions has been hailed by NGOs and farmers whose land was being acquired for different projects.

Finance secretary, Chandigarh administration, Sanjay Kumar said the guidelines would affect land acquisition for both mega and developmental projects like acquiring land for schools or drainage system. It would be applicable for all acquisitions, excluding those for which award has already been announced. Kumar said, ?The union territory would take a legal view in the matter.?

As the ministry has decided to have a special audit of projects by a team headed by the chief controller of accounts and go into issues of inadequate compensation to farmers, complaints about exemption, violations, where land was sold to private buyers or companies, the projects whose future hang in balance include Chandigarh IT park, medi-city, film city and the theme-cum-amusement park. The land where Chandigarh administration had launched the process for acquisition would be about 1,000 acres, official sources said.

As the ministry has asked the Chandigarh administration to implement the National Rehabilitation and Re-settlement Policy, 2007, the project of resettlement of slum dwellers coming up on 168 acres at Maloya in Chandigarh would also be under fresh scrutiny.

Only in February the Chandigarh administration had announced a compensation of Rs 18.75 lakh per acre for the remaining 167 acres for Phase III of Chandigarh Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park, inviting criticism and protests from farmers and political parties alleging that the market value of this land of farmers was not less than Rs 45 crore per acre, but Chandigarh administration had offered them a paltry Rs 18.75 lakh per acre.

Former MP and BJP leader, Satya Pal Jain, told FE, ?The decision to put on hold all land acquisitions in Chandigarh only showed that there was something fishy about these acquisitions. What was Centre doing all these years when land was acquired from poor farmers at dirt cheap rates for Phase I and II of Chandigarh Technology Park??

President of Farmers Welfare and Environment Protection Society, HS Johl, said, ?The ministry of home affairs must scrap Phase III of IT Park as many skeletons had been found during land acquisitions process.?