Farmers threaten to gherao NHAI office on Monday

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rewari, November 20

Farmers in over 18 Rewari villages have threatened to gherao the office of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on November 25, 2019, to mount pressure for the release of compensation for land acquired to construct a bypass connecting Rewari and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan through the National Highway-11.

“The NHAI has been promising to release the compensation within three or four days for over a month. We are fed up and have decided to gherao the NHAI office in Gurugram on Monday if compensation is not awarded by then,” said Suresh Yadav, a leader of affected farmers.

He pointed out that they had made preparations over a month ago to approach the High Court, but the NHAI promised to release compensation within a week, claiming that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had sanctioned it.

“We met NHAI officers several times in the past one month, but they continued to linger by making false promises. We will launch an agitation if compensation is not released this week,” he said.

“Land was acquired in 34 villages last year to construct the bypass and compensation was announced on December 12. The NHAI promised to pay compensation within a week. It paid compensation to owners in 16 villages, but farmers in 18 villages kept making rounds of government offices,” he added.

Sources said land compensation amounting to Rs 360 crore was to be disbursed among farmers for 252 acres. Anuj Kaushik, Project Director, NHAI, said farmers should wait for three or four more days as they were in the process of releasing compensation.