Naya Raipur hits farmer roadblock

Price and not the project is the bone of contention between the affected farmers and state government in the Naya Raipur—the upcoming new capital city of Chhattisgarh.

Naya Raipur would be the fourth planned capital city after Gandhinagar, Chandigarh and Bhubaneshwar. It would come up in 8000 hectares of land with world-class facilities.

The project includes 41 villages out of which 27 villages form the core of the Naya Raipur.

The affected people mostly farmers have been opposing the new capital project.

But their opposition is not against the land acquisition or the project being executed by the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA). It is the rate of compensation that has created the deadlock.

“Our opposition is not against the project, the farmers want a good rate as compensation for the land and a handsome rehabilitation package,” Kamta Prasad Ratre, secretary of the committee formed by the affected people from the new capital, said.

The farmers want to use the money to continue with their tradition profession of agriculture farming.

Ratre said with the compensation amount, the farmers were planning to purchase agriculture land elsewhere in the state and continue with the agriculture work.

“Agriculture is also important and we will continue with it even after giving away land for the new capital provided government pay as huge amount,” he added.

According to committee’s chief adviser Umesh Jethi, the NRDA has been selling the land acquired from the farmers at a hefty price of more than Rs 1 crore for an acre.

The farmers in the affected villages are also expecting rate at par with it (Rs 1 crore), he said. The NRDA is paying Rs 10 lakh for an acre of land.

Jethi said the NRDA was working as a trader and was trading land to other agencies at much higher price after acquiring the same at lower rate from the farmers.

“The NRDA should allow the farmers to directly sell the land so that they could get the desired price,” he added.

The committee has also decided not to allow the new mantralaya to start functioning in the new capital. The state government is planning to shift the mantralaya in the new capital by the end of this year.

“The farmers will lodge strong protest and even go for self immolation if the government shifts the mantralaya before settling down our issues,” Ratre added.