Ganga expressway hits political hurdle over land acquisition

Even as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Ganga expressway project in Ballia on January 15, opposition parties have started disputing the state government's claim of a fair deal to farmers in acquiring land.

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.

About 70 per cent of the nearly 63,110 hectares earmarked for the bidders is agricultural land. The state 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 issue of displacement is turning emotive because chances are that the companies will get large tracts of land. The proposed "access-controlled" eight-lane highway may lead to a political controversy as some believe this amounts to 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 parcels of land are given.

Though the bidders have expressed concerns over short time for submitting bids, sources close to the developments said the expressway team was working round the clock to announce the project in time. The hurry is because of Mayawati's birthday celebrations. The chief minister will celebrate her 52nd birthday on January 15.

Apparently worried over the virtually united opposition, the state government has announced a comprehensive relief and rehabilitation package for those to be displaced. The land-owners will be allowed to convert up to 10 per cent of the compensation for their 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."