Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has categorically said that the state government is open to conceding the farmers’ demand to give back the possession of 91 acres of land acquired for Peona thermal plant in Mansa district to the owners, who had declined to accept the compensation.
The recent land acquisition by the state government for the upcoming power project in Mansa district has invited farmers’ ire and may also become a stumbling block for other acquisitions in near future.
Disclosing this, a spokesperson of the chief minister’s office said that the state government was committed to implement its land acquisition policy in the “right earnest”, as it was alive to this sensitive issue and displacement of farmers.
Under the said policy, private land would be acquired only if the land was needed for a defined public purpose at the actual market rate in addition to 30 per cent solatium and 10 per cent as non litigation charges to fully compensate the farmers.
The spokesperson further said that the state government had already issued three notifications, of these two for acquiring 644 acres where no public agitation was witnessed and the third one for the acquisition of 240 acres of land in Gobindpura and other villages in its vicinity. Out of the second chunk of 240 acres of land, 166 acres had been acquired in Gobindpura village alone, where the owners of 75 acres had already willfully accepted the payment in form of cheques as compensation. However, the remaining chunk of 91 acres remains to be a contentious issue, as the owners have not accepted the compensation award.
The chief minister further decided to formulate a new relief and resettlement package for the farmers whose land had been acquired for public purposes, which would be meticulously deliberated in the Cabinet before its final approval. The said package would also consider the problem of those farmers whose entire land holding had been acquired and were only left with their houses by giving them suitable compensation in lieu of house property.
Likewise, the package was also likely to include a provision to give a suitable job to one member of the displaced family to secure their livelihood.