Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Mondayassured a farmers’ delegation that he would soon meet the Union Minister forRoad Transport and Highways to raise their demand for further revision incompensation against land acquired by the National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) under the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’.
The farmers have rejected the meager compensation awardedby the District Revenue Officers (DROs), who have been designated as CALAs(Competent Authority for Land Acquisitions).
In response to a request by a Road Kissan SangarshCommittee, whose delegation met him here, the Chief Minister today asked theFinancial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) to immediately issue detailed instructionsnot to credit the compensation amount into the accounts of farmers againsttheir will. He also directed the DGP to ensure that the farmers’ land is notforcefully seized.
The issue relates to 25,000 acres of land in 15 districtsacross the state. The land is under the process of acquisition for the projectcovering multiple expressways, viz. Delhi-Jammu-Katra, Jamnagar-Amritsar,Ludhiana-Ropar, Bathinda-Dabwali, besides bypass for Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
The Chief Minister, during his meeting with the RoadKissan Sangarsh Committee delegation led by its State President Sukhdev SinghDhillon, which was facilitated by MLA Kapurthala Rana Gurjit Singh, directed his Principal Secretary to seekan early appointment for a meeting with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. He stressedthe need to resolve the issue on priority to the satisfaction of farmers, whoare protesting for the past several months.
He also directed FCR Ravneet Kaur and Principal SecretaryPWD (B&R) Vikas Partap to jointly prepare a comprehensive case, inconsultation with the representatives of the committee, to highlight theglaring discrepancies while formulating the compensation award for the farmersunder the ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013’.
The Chief Minister ruled out the possibility of referringto such cases for arbitration as it would unnecessarily lead to inordinatedelay in seeking justice for the farmers.
To another issue raised by the Committee, the ChiefMinister asked the Principal Secretary PWD (B&R) to explore the feasibilityof allowing the farmers way to their fields near the upcoming Green FieldExpressways. Taking note of their concern over the issue of inaccessibility totheir fields, the Chief Minister said he would also take up this matter toowith Gadkari during his meeting.
On the request of Rana Gurjit Singh, the Chief Ministeralso asked the Revenue Department to put in place an effective mechanism tosettle the pending cases of division of land with mutual consent under ‘JointKhewat’.
The meeting was also attended by Chief Minister’s MediaAdvisor Raveen Thukral and Principal Secretary Tejveer Singh.