Farmers threaten to take back acquired land

TIRUNELVELI: Farmers, who offered their farmland for construction of a road from Town Arch to Arunagiri Theatre, on Thursday installed a banner stating that they will take back their land for cultivation in 15 days.

In the banner, they stated that the City Municipal Corporation did not disperse the compensation amount for the land. "The land which was acquired for road construction was owned by us. We have not received compensation for it so far. Hence, we are going to take back our land for cultivation. We regret the inconvenience to be caused to the road users," reads the banner.

One of the landholders, Karunanidhi, said, "Corporation authorities acquired our land seven years ago for this particular road which was laid four years ago. Despite our repeated petitions to the State government, the compensation amount was not disbursed to us. We were told that `14,000 would be provided to us per sq metre. We heard that the amount was recently increased by the government. However, the officials are delaying to distribute the money."

When contacted by TNIE to get the City Municipal Commissioner Kannan's version on the issue, he did not attend our repeated phone calls.