Anger simmers among Jammu farmers over ring road project

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 21

Amid simmering anger among thousands of farmers in Jammu and Samba districts, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has begun the work on the ambitious 60-km Jammu Ring Road project which is to be completed at a cost of Rs 2,100 crore.

The farming community in Samba and Jammu districts is on the warpath as farmers are unhappy over the alleged forcible acquisition of their fertile land for the project, by offering them a “meagre compensation” as compared to the existing market rates.

However, the NHAI claimed that nearly 92 per cent of land acquisition had been completed and the work had started. “The mobilisation of resources, including manpower and contractors, has already begun. We have completed nearly 92 per cent land acquisition,” Hemraj, General Manager, NHAI, Regional Office, told The Tribune. He said, “We have set a three-year deadline for the project.”

To a query about simmering dissent among farmers over “inadequate” compensation, he said, “This aspect is to be dealt by the revenue authorities engaged in the land acquisition process.”

The Omar Abdullah-led government had on September 25, 2012, given a nod for the construction of Jammu and Srinagar ring roads to decongest traffic.

Later, the Centre announced sanctioning of Rs 4,300 crore for these roads under the Prime Minister’s Development Package.

A total of 11,528 farmers would be affected due to the construction of the ring roads around Jammu and Srinagar. The state government, however, has ruled out enhancement of compensation being demanded by farmers as well as legislators of different political parties.

In Jammu, the four-lane semi-ring road will involve an expenditure of Rs 2,100 crore while farmers of 44 villages will be affected by it. The ring road will start near Vijaypur (Raipur) and meet the highway at Akhnoor from where it will go up to the Nagrota bypass. It involves an expenditure of Rs 213 crore for land acquisition.

“The existing market rate of fertile land in our village is between Rs 12-15 lakh per kanal but the authorities are offering just Rs 3.01 lakh per kanal which is not acceptable to us. Who will allow acquisition of fertile land at a throwaway price if farming is their only source of livelihood,” Tarseem Lal, ex-sarpanch of Gangochak panchayat of the Marh block.

Sukhnandan Choudhary, BJP legislator, who had raised the issue in the Assembly, said the farmers were not happy and their discontent would have serious ramifications. “If a farmer having just four kanals is given Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh per kanal, how will his family survive because this small land holding is their only source of livelihood?” he said.

Wasim Raja, Assistant Commissioner Revenue, Samba, said six villages, having 397 kanals, would fall under the ring road project in the district. “We have done 100 per cent land acquisition and even payment of the compensation has begun. In case any land owner/farmer is not satisfied with the rate in the final award, he can receive the compensation first under protest and thereafter avail the remedy available under the Land Acquisition Act,” he said.

11,528 farmers to be hit 

• A total of 11,528 farmers will be affected due to the construction of the ring roads around Jammu and Srinagar 
• The state government, however, has ruled out enhancement of compensation being demanded by farmers as well as legislators of different political parties