Tension grows round Ganga expressway

Even as UP Chief Minister Mayawati is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Ganga expressway project, in Ballia, on January 15, touted to be the first of its kind in the country, opposition parties in the state have started disputing the state government's claim of fair deal to farmers in acquiring land.

Mayawati will celebrate her 52nd birthday on January 15.

The Congress has called it "another Nandigram", and the BJP has announced a statewide agitation against the project, calling it "Ram aur Ganga Bachao Andolan". The Samajwadi Party is also dead opposed to the project.

Also, former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh-led Jan Morcha has spelled out its plan to launch a sustained agitation for farmers to be displaced by the project.

The issue of displacement in the proposed 1,000-km Ganga Expressway project is turning emotive, because chances are companies will get large tracts of real estate. The proposed 'access control' eight-lane highway could lead to a political controversy as some believe this will be toying with the fate of millions of farmers.

The government owns only 5 per cent of the land it has promised, though the authorities insist that wasteland will be given first and the fertile land will cost more. The UP government is not spending anything on the project and in such a scenario the project can be viable only if large land parcels are given.

Nearly 63,110 hectares of land has been earmarked for the bidders with as much as 70 per cent of this being agricultural land. The UP government has asked for final bids by January 11 and the bidder who asks for the least amount of land will be awarded the contract.

The bidders for the project have expressed concern on the tight timelines for submitting bids but sources close to the developments said that the expressway team was working round the clock to announce this project in time.

The hurry is because of Mayawati's birthday celebrations.

Apparently worried over the united opposition to the project, the UP government has announced a comprehensive a relief and rehabilitation package for those to be displaced.

The unique part of the offer is shareholding to those whose land will be acquired. Land owners will be given the liberty to convert up to 10 per cent of the payable compensation towards their acquired land into shares of the company building the expressway.

Describing this as an "unprecedented and unique offer", a senior official said: "The state government has also decided to allot free of cost residential plots measuring 150 square metres in urban areas and 250 square metres in rural areas to those whose land will be acquired.

In addition, they will also be entitled to a 15 per cent quota in the allotment of flats and plots developed in industrial pockets developed along the expressway," he added.

The offer package also includes payment of a monthly displacement allowance equivalent to the minimum wage of agriculture labour for a period of one year from the date of displacement to each family.

This would be in addition to a lump sum ex-gratia payment of Rs.25,000 towards construction of an alternative work shed to each of them. Besides, another sum of Rs.10,000 would be payable towards cost of shifting.

'The expressway would not only transform the so far untapped left bank of the Ganga River, but also generate such economic activity all along the 1,000-km route that would give a new fillip to the economy of the entire state,, the official claimed.

"It will give impetus to progress in the development-starved eastern region by providing great employment opportunities," officials said.

But this has not dissuaded the big names from bidding for the project. A team of senior officials led by Fateh Bahadue, principal secretary to the chief minister, visited Ballia to finalise the venue for the foundation ceremony.