Bullet train: Guj farmers approach HC over land acquisition

Farmers of Surat district today approached the Gujarat High Court against a preliminary notification issued by the state government for acquisition of land for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project.

The farmers of Antroli village of Surat's Palsana taluka in their petitions claimed that the government had not followed rules and sought that the notification be quashed.

The petitioners claimed that the process of land acquisition could not be started before revising the prices of their land as mandated under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.

Claiming that the government wanted to take into account the market rates of 2011, the petitioners demanded that the rates be revised as per the market price of 2017, when the project was initiated.

After admitting four different petitions from these farmers, the division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi asked the government pleader to take instructions from the government and kept the matter for hearing on Monday.

The farmers claimed that the state government has issued the preliminary notification under Section 11(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 on April 9, declaring its intention to acquire the land.

This acquisition process, they claimed, was initiated even before the market value of the land to be acquired was updated.

The farmers also claimed in their petition that the Gujarat government did not have powers to issue such a notification since the project was divided between two states, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In such a scenario, only the Centre could issue such a notification for the acquisition of land, the petitioners contended.