VARANASI: The farmers of four villages are up in arms over the acquisition of the proposed
Transport Nagar project demanding their land back. They held a meeting on Sunday and decided to submit a letter written with their blood to the parliamentary office of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on April 9.
For Transport Nagar project planned in 2000, to minimize the traffic load on the city roads, the
Varanasi Development Authority had proposed to develop it on the outskirts of the city at a piece of 214.17 acres of land that affected 1,194 farmers of four villages including Sarai Mohan, Bairawan, Karnadadi and Milkichak.
Terming the project as anti-farmers, they held a meeting under the banner of UP Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress on Sunday and signed the blood-written letter to the PM demanding scrapping the land acquisition on the basis of new Land Acquisition Act 2013 . The farmer leader and state convener of the organisation Vinay Shankar Rai alleged that the land of 1,192 farmers of the four villages had been acquired in 2003 for the project.
Over 350 farmers signed the letter, and the signature campaign will continue in the four villages till April 8.
However, the VDA authorities claimed that they are exploring the way out. Although the VDA has acquired the land on paper, but it has no possession on land due to protest of farmers, who demanded compensation as per new land acquisition law, said the VDA secretary
Vishal Singh adding that efforts are on to find out some solution in this regard.
According to VDA records, the process for acquiring 86.219 hectares of land was started in 2000 with the issuance of a notification by the land acquisition department. After final notification in 2001, the possession of the acquired land was given to VDA on paper. A loan of Rs 95 crore was also sought from HUDCO for developing the project out of which Rs 28 crore was allocated. However, the project has been in limbo since farmers started demanding compensation as per the new land acquisition laws. To meet this demand, VDA needed Rs 855 crore whereas at the time of its launch in 2000, the land acquisition department had estimated its cost at about Rs 99.3 crore.
Representative image
