Land acquired for road project, Solan residents rue inadequate relief

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, October 30

Locals here are upset over inadequate compensation for land acquired for development work in the district.

Land has been acquired for two four-lane projects in the district, Baddi-Nalagarh section of NH-105 and Parwanoo-Solan section of NH-5.

As much as 32 hectare of land has been acquired for the rail project connecting Baddi to Pinjore while 27 hectare has been acquired for the four-lane in this industrial area from about 4,000 people. Eight hectare of balance land is also in the process of being acquired.

Since the process to acquire land had begun years ago, a section of land losers were unhappy with the granted award as they felt they should’ve been granted higher compensation.

Expressing their resentment against inadequate land award, land losers have been protesting before the authorities from time to time.

Demanding compensation four times the price of land, the Parwanoo-Solan-Shimla Four Lane Affected Samiti has raised a banner of protest. Land losers have said it was unfair to grant them compensation at double the rate of the land price while the BJP government had promised to give them four times of the rate. They have alleged that the party had gone back on its promise and deceived the land owners.

The BJP has failed to wrest the Solan and Nalagarh seats in the last Assembly elections. Though it had won the Doon seat, the sitting MLA Paramjeet Singh could face the onslaught of this issue. Land losers of the rail project had even boycotted the ‘Bhumi Pujan’ of the rail project.

As against the rate of Rs 25 lakh granted for a bigha of land in 2008-2009, the authorities were granting Rs 18 lakh for its adjoining land. They contended that the railways had negotiated to pay Rs 67 lakh per bigha, but they were offered Rs 37 lakh per bigha by the land acquisition authorities. The government, however, chose to consider the circle rates for land acquisition, which was brought down to Rs 18 lakh per bigha.

Out of the 38.701 hectare of land needed, about 30 hectare has been acquired from villages, including Saraj Majra, Shitalpur, Kalyanpur, Chak-Jangi, Landewal, Kenduwal, Billanwali, Gujran, Hariour Sandholi and Sandholi, in industrial area of Baddi for the rail project.

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