CHENNAI: Bringing to a grinding halt the survey work on the multi-crore
Chennai-Salem greenfield corridor, the Madras HC has stayed dispossession of owners from the lands identified for acquisition.
"Respondents (officials) are directed not to dispossess the respective land owners from the land, which they propose to acquire until further orders in these writ petitions," ruled a division bench of Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan on Tuesday. "Considering the fact and the sensitivity of the matter, and the category of persons from whom the lands are proposed to be acquired, we deem it appropriate that we clarify the aspect which has been placed before us by the advocate general. It will allay all the fears of land owners and the challenge to land acquisition proceedings...," they said.
Earlier, during arguments, when advocate general Vijay Narayan said pamphlets were being distributed among owners to ally apprehensions of dispossession by force, the bench replied: "On reading of the pamphlet, we find that there is absolutely no whisper about the assurance given by the officials to the land owners that they will not be forcibly dispossessed from their respective lands."
‘Plant ten trees for each tree removed’
They said: “The matter which has been stated in the pamphlet largely speaks about the project which is to be implemented, the proposal to plant 10 trees for every tree which is to be removed, assuring the public that on account of the formation of the road mineral deposits in the district will not be affected, the interest of pedestrian will be sufficiently safeguarded by providing adequate barricades, the total extent which has to be acquired, the compensation that would be paid and finally that it is a very special scheme and it would benefit the people.”
The court passed the interim orders and made the observations on a batch of pleas, including one moved by the NGO Poovulagin Nanbargal, assailing acquisition of lands for the project even before obtaining environment clearance from the Centre.
When the pleas came up for hearing, advocate T Mohan, representing 35 land owners affected by the project, submitted that they still had grave apprehensions in their minds that they would be forcefully dispossessed from their respective lands. Senior counsel, NL Rajah, who represented another petitioner, submitted that his client had conducted a survey in the area and still the people were genuinely afraid that they would be dispossessed from their respective lands.
“Therefore, the local public should be sensitised and counselled by officials of the state government that there was no threat of dispossession,” Rajah said.
To this, advocate-general Vijay Narayan said pamphlets had been circulated in the areas concerned, explaining the nature of the project.
He placed one such pamphlet issued by Kancheepuram district collector before the court along with photographs taken while approaching the land owners before surveying the lands. Vijay Narayan also said that right from the date one when the cases were heard, he had been saying that there was no threat of dispossession of land owners.
Recording the submissions, the bench posted the pleas to September 11 for further hearing.
Representative image
