Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 23: Ring and Semi Ring Road Land Owners’ Welfare Committee today stressed upon the Government to either enact new version of Land Acquisition Act wherein 4 times compensation than market value is guaranteed to them, or impress upon NHAI for private negotiations.
The committee which consists of farmers from Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Udhampur, Pulwama, Budgam, Srinagar, Baramulla, Bandipora and Ganderbal districts organized a joint press conference here today and put forward genuine demands before the Government regarding Land Acquisition for ring and semi ring road projects in J&K.
The members of the committee said that the farmers affected by ring/semi ring road projects in Jammu/Kashmir valley will continue their struggle for pushing forward their demands for fair and legitimate compensation from National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
They appealed the Government to either enact new version of Land Acquisition Act wherein 4 times compensation than market value is guaranteed to us, or if this is not immediately possible then Government must impress upon NHAI for private negotiations which have been held in past during land acquisition on Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Project.
The members said that NHAI has agreed to pay 4 times more compensation than market land in rural areas and 2 times in urban areas provided state of J&K adopts Central Land Acquisition Act of 2013 but Government of J&K is not agreeing to adopt it and NHAI is not agreeing for private negotiations. “In between Government and NHAI, farmers are being made scapegoats”, they added.
The representatives of the farmers said that Government must stop putting pressure on poor farmers to give away their land on very low price as this is creating a public outcry in Jammu as well as in Kashmir region. “It is for the first time that farmers of Jammu as well as Kashmir have united against this move and we will fight this battle jointly”, they added.
The farmers’ leaders said that Government is not paying fair compensation not only for land but also for fruit bearing trees. “Our apple, plum and almond orchards, saffron fields are being forcibly occupied and compensation paid is 10 times less as the formula adopted has been prepared way back in 1986”, they alleged.
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