Power plant row: MP govt files undertaking in HC

The single bench of Justice R S Jha has fixed the final hearing of the case on November 27.

Farmers from Bujbuja and Dokaria villages in the district had filed a public interest litigation opposing acquisition of land for the Welspun Power plant.

In their PIL Barhi resident Anand Tiwari, along with 50 farmers, stated that their agriculture land is the only source of livelihood for them.

The petitioners had said that in the public interest it was not feasible to acquire agriculture land for an industry alleging that administrative officials were forcing them to give up their land for the power plant by violating rules for the land acquisition process.

The notice for the land acquisition too was not published properly and the affected farmers were not given an opportunity to give their stand on the issue, the PIL said.

"The undertaking said that till the final hearing of the case, the land will not be acquired for the power plant," said petitioner's advocate Vivek Rusia.

To oppose the acquisition, farmers in two villages had set up funeral pyres on their fields and threatened to set themselves on fire in case of any coercion.

WEMPL has proposed to set up a Greenfield thermal power plant of 1980 MW (3X660MW) capacity at Bujbuja in Barhi tehsil of the district and had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state government on November 24, 2009, in this regard.