How the UP government solved the land acquisition puzzle

State paid four times circle rate in rural areas and twice in urban areas, to acquire land from 30,700 farmers across seven districts for the Agra-Lucknow expressway

A newly acquired Mahindra Scorpio with outsized Samajwadi Party flag was parked in a shade as people sitting nearby had just finished their siesta. Their eyes lit up when asked about the changes that under-construction Agra-Lucknow expressway had brought in their lives. “More than half of my land was acquired for the project,” said Sambhu Dayal of Nasirpur village in Firozabad district. His house was just few metres away from the under-construction expressway.

With very little land left to look after, Sambhu would spend most of his time playing cards or chatting up with friends. Many other farmers in the village gave him company. But there was no regret still. “I got less than what was the market price and therefore suffered a loss. But I have no complaints. The process was very smooth and I got the money in 14 days flat. Most of the people I know who pledged to give their land got money in less than a month,” he told this reporter. He and many others in this village said they had benefited from the feel-good factor as land prices in surrounding areas went up manifold after the acquisition.

UP’S SUCCESS FORMULA FOR LUCKNOW-AGRA E-WAY

• 3,400-hectare land acquired in 6 months
• 30,700 farmers in 232 villages gave their land
• Acquisition through mutual consent
• Monetary compensation to farmers at four times the circle rate in rural areas and two times the circle rate in urban areas
• Entire process done online

This reporter met scores of farmers in four villages along the expressway. While not all were as satisfied as Sambhu Dayal, an overwhelming majority said they gave their land voluntarily. Some of them, however, shared unique problems. Ram Bihari (name changed on his request) of Dhanpura village in Firozabad said his farm got divided in two parts with the expressway cutting across it. He said he was left with no option but to sell half of his land as looking after both land parcels became a challenge. Some others regretted losing their ancestral house. And a tiny minority, which had protested land acquisition, gave up mid-way as a majority of farmers were willing to sell their land.

Navneet Sehgal, CEO of Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), the agency tasked with acquiring land for the expressway, said, “I will say a combination of three factors made the entire exercise a smooth one. We gave confidence to the farmers that their interests would be taken care of. A transparent compensation and payment system added to the confidence. And we made the entire exercise completely hassle-free for farmers.”

It was not an easy task. To acquire land from nearly 30,700 farmers spread across 232 revenue villages in seven districts was a mammoth exercise.

There were agitations against land acquisition in other parts of the country around that time. The ruling Samajwadi Party had suffered heavy electoral reverses in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and it did not want to do anything to further alienate farmers.

The task of devising a compensation package was given to a committee headed by the district magistrate in each of the seven districts. To maintain uniformity across the state, it was decided to give farmers four times the prevailing circle rate in rural areas and two times the circle rate in urban areas. Road-facing land fetched higher prices for farmers. New houses were built for those who lost their houses. And it was done before acquiring land.

“Because of the robust process in place, we received consent from more than 93 per cent farmers,” said Sehgal. UPEIDA paid nearly Rs 3,000 crore to farmers as compensation. UP government officials said the entire process — from whose land needed to be acquired to what was going to be compensation — was done online. And the moment a farmer signed the registration, money was directly credited to his account, saving them the hassle of running from pillar to post to get their money. “What may have helped the government acquire so much land with very little resistance is the fact that farming has ceased to be remunerative at many places and farmers are showing willingness to move out,” said a senior government functionary.

Having tasted success with this model, the state was planning to replicate it while acquiring land for the proposed Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway, connecting Lucknow to Ballia. “Preliminary survey along the route suggests that farmers are eager to sell their land for this project too,” said Sehgal.