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| Villagers protest Iffco land acquisition |
| Bs Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar Sep 07, 2009, 00:04 IST |
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Hundreds of farmers of the villages affected by the proposed expansion of the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) boycotted the award passing camp of the district administration in Paradip on Saturday.
The farmers are protesting over the valuation of their land and absence of rehabilitation measures for them.
The affected farmers boycotted the award passing camp and threatened not to give an inch of land to Iffco if their demands are not fulfilled.
The district administration had served notice to the affected farmers under section 9 (3) and 9 (4) of the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring their land and finalization of the land rate for passing awards on Friday and Saturday.
Iffco needed 427 acres for the expansion of its fertiliser plant at Paradip. This land is spread over three villages-Bijayachandpur, Kaudia, and Udyabata under Kujang tehsil. The villagers said, the farmers’ land have been acquired at throw away prices.
Debjyoti Samant , president, Kaudia Krushak Manch alleged that there is discrimination in the valuation of land due to which the farmers of Kaudia village would face heavy loss. He said that the special land acquisition officer has fixed the rate of land of Kaudia village at Rs 4 lakh per acre while the rate for neighbouring Bijaychandpur village has been fixed at Rs 25 lakh per acre.
Stating that the officials have deviated from the norms in fixing the land rate, he said, in cases where the sales data of a particular class of land of a village in question is not available, then the instances of sales of identical classes of land in neighbouring villages has to be taken into account.
However, Surjeet Das, the district rehabilitation officer said the rate of land of the Kaudia village has been fixed as per the market value and there is no question of deviation from the government rules.
The villagers have aired their grievances to revenue divisional commissioner, district collector and other officials. The villagers have appealed to these officials to hike the land rate, provide employment opportunities and other rehabilitation measures, but their demands have fallen on deaf ears. The farmers have alleged that the effluents and acid water discharged by the Iffco plant affects paddy and other crops, but no compensation was given to them.
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