C'garh:Cong protests low compensation to rail-project affected

The main opposition Congress today staged a walk-out from the Chhattisgarh Assembly over the issue of rehabilitation of the people affected by the East Rail Corridor (Bhupdeopur-Dharamjaigarh) project.
Raising the issue through a calling attention motion notice, Congress MLAs Umesh Patel, Motilal Dewangan and the party's state unit chief Bhupesh Baghel said the government acquired land for the project on a very large scale but issues pertaining to rehabilitation, payment of compensation and employment to the displaced people were not solved.
The project-affected farmers had staged a protest following which the administration sought two months to distribute compensation, but to date no compensation had been paid, they alleged.

The land, with going rate of around Rs 25 lakh per acre, was acquired at a very low rate, and the farmers should be paid the market rate, the Congress MLAs demanded.
They also alleged illegal felling of trees for the project.
In his reply, Revenue Minister Premprakash Pandey said it was the Railway Ministry's project for which 255.008 hectares of private land was acquired under the Indian Railway Act,1989.

The government had fixed Rs 78.81 crore as compensation, of which Rs 66.21 crore had been distributed among 1,004 farmers so far, he said.
The Railways was collecting information of the affected people for distribution of compensation under a proposed rehabilitation scheme and sought time till June 2016 for depositing the money, the minister added.

As to employment, he said the Railways had no provision of giving jobs to the affected people, as none of the affected persons had lost the entire land owned by him or her. He also denied that the compensation was very low.
Not satisfied, Congress MLAs walked out.