Ready for takeoff: 76% of farmers give consent for land acquisition for Noida airport phase-II

NOIDA: More than 76% of farmers across six villages have given consent for parting with their land for the second phase of the Noida international airport.
Meerut divisional commissioner Selva Kumari J and Noida district magistrate Suhas LY collected the consent letters from the villagers on Saturday.
The DM said the decks had now been cleared for the acquisition process to begin. According to the Land Acquisition Act, the consent of at least 70% farmers is required for the exercise. Altogether, 7,164 families will be affected by the second phase of the airport project. The consent of at least 5,015 families will be needed for the acquisition to start. So far, 5,445 families have agreed to give their land.
"We will now send a proposal to the state government to issue a notification under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act. But before that, we have teamed up with the Yamuna Authority to map the land so that we have the right alignment," Suhas LY told TOI. "The revenue records are also being checked. It's a very technical project and we want to be sure about every aspect."
Suhas LY said that after a notification had been issued about the acquisition of land, another dealing with the compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) plan would be released. The plots will then be taken over by the government.
The senior officials met Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh, who was instrumental in getting the farmers' consent after discussing the R&R policy with them in detail.
The land acquisition process for the second phase of the airport gained steam after a delegation of 200 farmers led by Singh met chief minister Yogi Adityanath on October 12. The chief minister agreed to the villagers' demand of an enhanced compensation and some changes to the R&R policy. About 3,500 farmer families had given their consent following the meeting itself.
Earlier in May, the land acquisition process had hit a roadblock after farmers opposed the rates they were being offered. They held panchayats and decided not to part with their land at the rates that were offered to villagers for the first phase of the project. They demanded compensation at four times the market rate instead of two that the government planned initially.
After the chief minister's announcement on more compensation on October 12, the government has increased the rate to Rs 3,400 per sqm from the previous Rs 2,300 per sqm.
Over the next few days, the authorities concerned deployed teams in each village and held camps to get the consent of the landowners.
For the second phase of the airport, 1,365 hectares will need to be acquired. Of these, 1,185.7 hectares of private land will be acquired in Karauli Bangar, Dayanatpur, Kureb, Ranhera, Mundrah and Birampur villages. Besides, there are 180 hectares of government land available.