A delegation of Congress leaders and farmers from Haryana met President Ram Nath Kovind today and urged him not to give his assent to the amendment bill to facilitate the de-notification of the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project land in the state.
The delegation, led by Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala and Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) Haryana president Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, besides former MLAs Anil Dhantori and Ramesh Gupta, submitted a memorandum to Kovind, in which they said the shelving of the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project would adversely affect the farmers and that it could result in one lakh hectares of fertile land turning barren.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Kovind, Surjewala said the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project was the "lifeline" of northern Haryana and alleged that the BJP government in the state had bartered the farmers' interests.
Describing the decision of the saffron party as another "Tughlaki farman" (whimsical diktat), he said close to one lakh hectares of land in 225 villages of Ambala, Yamuna Nagar and Kurukshetra would be denied of irrigation due to it, which would once again prove the BJP's apathy towards the interests of the poor and farmers.
Surjewala said the project was launched by the Congress in 1985, adding that in October 2005, the party had restarted it and acquired 1,019 acres of land for water-recharging and irrigation through the construction of the Shahbad feeder, Shahbad distributary and Nalvi distributary.
He added that nearly Rs 200 crore were paid in compensation for the land alone, besides spending another Rs 111.70 crore on the construction of these canals.
About Rs 100 crore were spent on developing roads and constructing bridges on the land acquired for the Dadupur- Nalvi canal project, the Congress leader said.
He added that after spending over Rs 400 crore on restoring the underground water table and providing irrigation facilities, the Khattar government was seeking to destroy the entire project on account of its myopic, parochial and anti- farmers approach.
Surjewala said the farmers were already facing a crisis and had no money to pay for the levelling of the canal, bridges and roads constructed over their land.
"Do the chief minister and his government even understand that the farmers will have to spend nearly Rs 40 lakh per acre to fill up the canal passing through their land, which is 58- feet wide and 30-feet deep?," he wondered.
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