Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 3: The farmers that have been affected by the Srinagar Ring Road project in Budgam have been denied meeting with the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha in Budgam today.
The affected farmers wanted to apprise the LG regarding the issues that they are facing, however, despite keeping the district administration informed about the meeting well in time they wre not allowed to meet him.
They said that despite the fact that 1000 families are getting affected with the Ring Road as 3800 kanals of land is being acquired by the Government for the new highway connecting Pampore with Ganderbal via Budgam, they were denied meeting with the LG.
Chairman of Ring Road Land Owners Welfare Committee G A Paul said that farmers had in advance updated the district administration Budgam about facilitating their meeting with Lt Governor during his visit to Budgam but the same was denied due to unknown reasons.
“We had informed the officer-in-charge about our meeting with LG more than 10 days back, but we are unable to understand why we were denied the appointment in spite of the fact that 3800 kanals of land acquisition is the burning issue of 1000 farmer families,” he said.
He added that the farmers were aghast and wanted to protest outside DC office Budgam.
“But we thought it may lead to law and order problems and thus changed the programme. We seek an explanation from DC Budgam on this and appeal LG to give us a separate appointment for discussing the issue,” he said.
Paul added that the Government’s wrong policy with regard to land acquisition is frustrating farmers and Govt must issue a fresh notification for construction of Srinagar Ring Road as compensation awards approved by the Financial Commissioner are illegal as the time for making these awards have already lapsed as per section 11-B.
He said that section 11-B of JK Land Acquisition Act 1934 (now repealed) clearly says that awards have to be prepared within 2 years of time from the date of issuance of section 4 and 6 notifications.
“In case of majority of Budgam villages the notification was issued in 2017 which lapsed in 2019 and after 3 and half years Govt is preparing the award which is completely illegal,” he said.
The farmers said that the new notification under Right to Fair Compensation law 2013 has to be issued and that they wanted to apprise LG about the same but were denied the appointment with the LG, terming it condemnable.
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