Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 24: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla today demanded adequate compensation to the farmers, whose land is being acquired by the Government for construction of Ring Road.
While addressing the prominent persons of Preet Nagar Jammu in Gandhi Nagar constituency, he asked the Government to pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh per Kanal as this land is only source of income for these farmers.
Bhalla demanded that Government should pay at least four times more compensation as has been fixed for their land or actual cost of the land should be paid by implementing Government of India Land Acquisition Order for the welfare of public in general and farmers in particular. “In the interest of poor and small farmers, J&K Government should take immediate decision in this regard and save the aggrieved poor farmers from starvation in future instead of evicting them from their land by paying meager amount of compensation”, he said.
Bhalla warned that if some concrete measure are not taken by the Government in this regard, the small farmers would be forced to choose the path of agitation. He appealed the Government not to play such type of cruel joke with the plight of the farmers.
While quoting the farmers, Bhalla said that the latter were ready to give their land but the Government was not offering them genuine compensation. “Compensation ranging from Rs 78000 to Rs 3.20 lakh per kanal is being offered in Jammu, but for a similar project in Kashmir valley, the State Government has fixed compensation at the rate of Rs 9.2 lakh per kanal,” he alleged.
The Congress leader described the PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir as an abject failure, saying the coalition was plagued by distractions that has slowed down the process of development and left the Governance in paralytic mode. “In fact, the present dispensation has lost the will to govern”, he said, adding that the slogan of development was just a façade, as the major concern of the insensitive alliance was how to remain glued to power. Bhalla said that the Government has lost trust and confidence of the people, who are highly dejected due to misgovernance, nepotism, favouritism and lack of development. He particularly referred to the disillusionment of the people in Jammu and said the self-centric BJP has betrayed their mandate.
The programme was organized by Tilak Raj Sharma. Those present on the occasion, include Pardeep Singh Chib, Bholli, S S Dutt, Shamsher Singh, Bebo, Gurvinder Singh, Narinder Singh Nindi, Beant Kour and others.
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