Farmers seek higher land compensation, stage dharna

Karnal, February 28

Scores of farmers on Tuesday took out a tractor march and staged a dharna outside Kharkhoda tehsil against the amendments in the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. They were demanding double compensation for their land, which was being acquired for the railway orbital corridor on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) highway. Besides, they raised the demand to declare the KMP either a state highway or a national highway.

Farmers handed over a memorandum to the SDM for the Chief Minister in support of their demands. Farmer leaders Abhimanyu, Ramkaran, Prem Dahiya, and others, said the government has forced the farming community to protest.

“On August 24, 2021, the government amended the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. The amendments are against the farmers. There was a provision for taking consent from farmers, four times more compensation in comparison to collector rate and others, which were snatched in the Haryana Land Acquisition Amendments Act, 2021. They alleged that farmers have been staging protests across the state since the amendments were done, but the government was not giving heed to this issue, they alleged.

The government was going to build a railway orbital corridor and other development projects on the KMP highway and the land was being acquired by keeping the rules aside. Farmers have been protesting against it for the past two months. “We demand relief as per the provisions in the Land Acquisition Act, 2013,” they said.