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| UP farmers oppose Ganga Expressway Project |
| Virendra Singh Rawat / New Delhi/ Lucknow Oct 06, 2009, 00:49 IST |
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Announce intense agitation against Rs 30,000-cr project
Uttar Pradesh farmers today demanded scrapping of the Ganga Expressway Project (GEP) alleging it was a conspiracy to render them unemployed and landless, while raising questions about the mega project’s legality and environmental feasibility.
The work on the Rs 30,000-crore project had come to halt on May 29, 2009, when the Allahabad High Court ordered the state government to get the project cleared by the environment ministry.
“Despite the High Court order, the survey work is still on, which is tantamount to contempt of court,” Ganga Krishi Bhumi Mukti Abhiyaan Samanvai Samiti (GKBMASS) spokesperson Sanjay Singh told Business Standard.
He said the state government and concessionaire Jaypee Group officials were ‘luring’ the naïve farmers into parting with their land.
“Our agitation is not on the issue of compensation for the land, which is higher than the prevailing market rate, but this project will render the farmers without any livelihood,” he said.
The samiti is the umbrella body of all the organisations protesting the GEP, including Ganga Mahasabha, Krishi Bhumi Bachao Morcha, Pashupalak Sangh, Paryavaran Sachetak Samiti etc.
“We will intensify our agitation from October 16 at the district level. From November onwards, committees will be constituted in all the villages and from February ‘Kisan Chetna Yatras’ will be organised from Ballia district to Noida,” he said.
The committee has also announced boycotting products of Jaypee Group and the celebrities endorsing them.
“We will form self-help groups and distribute pamphlets and booklets in local dialect for creating awareness on this issue,” Singh added.
The samiti will file a contempt petition in the High Court (HC).
In May this year, the alignment process by Jaypee was nearing completion, when the HC order came.
“We are taking steps for seeking the fresh environment clearance as directed by the court,” a company had earlier said. The court had ordered halting the project on separate petitions filed by Vindhya Environmental Society (VEM), Mirzapur and Hindu Mahasabha, questioning its environmental feasibility.
The HC quashed the earlier environmental clearance noting there were gaps in the preliminary clearance, wherein some procedures had been bypassed or short-circuited.
The 1, 047-km expressway between Greater Noida and Ballia will traverse through Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Badaun, Kanshi Ram Nagar, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Sant Ravi Das Nagar, Varanasi and Ghazipur districts.
The state government said the project was necessary to give a filip to trade and regional development in the region, especially eastern UP.
The expressway is proposed to be developed on the left side of the Ganga and reduce travel time considerably.
UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is the lead government agency involved in the project, which was awarded to Jaypee after bidding in January 2008. The project was divided into four parts and bids were invited for each part separately. Jaypee, which bid for all the four parts, was awarded the four contracts. The project, which follows design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) model, was originally scheduled to be completed by 2012.
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