Land acquisition for Amritsar-Bathinda-Jamnagar Expressway: Farmers demand adequate compensation

Deepkamal Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, January 7

Hundreds of farmers of Kapurthala district are distraught as they alleged that they were not getting adequate compensation for the proposed acquisition of the under-construction Amritsar-Bathinda-Jamnagar Expressway (NH-754).

The farmers said they have written to the Punjab Chief Minister to take up their matter with the NHAI officials and the local land acquisition collectors or else they would be at a grave loss. The land of 12 villages of Kapurthala is to be acquired as per the plan — Tibba, Amanipur, Masitan, Khokhar Jadid (Kalewal), Lau, Meera, Harnampur Wadel, Wadhel Khuda Baksh Wala, Randhirpur, Gillian, Deepewal and Ugrupur villages. The villages fall in Bholath, Kapurthala and Sultanpur Lodhi tehsils.

The residents of Wadhel Khuda Baksh Wala village have said with just Rs 21.01 lakh compensation for an acre of land as compared to Rs 68.61 lakh per acre coming to Khokhar Jadid village, they would be completely devastated.

“Such a huge difference in the reward money for the lands falling in adjoining villages would be a great injustice to the owners who would not be fairly compensated. We have approached the Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner and DRO a number of times requesting them to have at least some uniformity in the rates of compensations for all villages but to no avail,” the farmers have mentioned in their appeal to the Punjab Chief Minister.

Dayal Singh, a farmer of Deepewal village, said: “In 2012/2013, the then government had acquired the land for the NHAI from Amritsar-Tarn Taran-Bathinda, Moga-Barnala-Patiala and Jalandhar-Moga and a reward of Rs 80-90 lakh per acre had been given nearly a decade ago. But the present government is forcing people to give up their farmlands for a meagre amount of money. These farmlands are not only a source of income but have been nurtured by the tillers for generations. The proposed amount is not even close to what they we will need to resettle. We are demanding a compensation of Rs 90 lakh per acre in accordance with the market scenario.”

The farmers have said that many of them after the acquisition would have no other source of income left as a small piece of land was their only means of livelihood, which too the government would take away.

DC Deepti Uppal said: “Many farmers have started receiving compensation. There is not much of an issue. Land is being acquired in Kapurthala for various projects.”

About the project

• Amritsar-Bathinda-Jamnagar Expressway will be 1,257-km long with four/six lanes. It will cut short the distance between Amritsar and Jamnagar by nearly 114 km. On Jalandhar-Moga road, it will intersect at Dharmkot
• It is a part of the economic corridor which will pass through four states including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. It will connect three big oil refineries including those at Bathinda, Barmer and Jamnagar
• The work on the expressway started in 2019 and is expected to be completed by 2023. The project is a part of the Bharatmala Pariyojna and is being raised under the National Infrastructure and Investment Fund. The cost of the project is estimated at a whopping amount of Rs80,000 crore