In a relief to over 100 farmers from 26 villages of Ahmedabad and Mehsana district, the Gujarat High Court on Friday cancelled the land acquisition by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) for Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) in these villages.
A division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala also ordered the competent authority to begin the land acquisition process again and this time they should take into consideration the objections of the farmers.
The court pronounced the judgement on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed last year by Railway Corridor Virodh Kisan Sangh (RCVKS) who had opposed the diversion of the railway line proposed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL).
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The farmers from 16 villages of Sanand taluka of Ahmedabad and 10 villages of Kalol and Kadi taluka of Mehsana, who had united under the banner of RCVKS, had alleged that the diversion proposed by the DFCCIL was unwanted and the railway line should be kept parallel to the existing railway line between Mumbai-Delhi.
In August 2012, after the PIL was admitted, the High Court had stayed the process of acquisition of land and laying railway tracks between Sabarmati and Pansar village for the purpose of DFC.
As per the case details, DFCCIL was to be set up a railway line parallel to the Mumbai-Delhi railway track that passes through Sabarmati and Mehsana as part of the central government's DFC. However, there was some change in the scheme and the alignment was changed from Pansar village in Mehsana. Accordingly, the authorities initiated the process of acquiring land for laying down the tracks. This change in plan was likely to affect farmers of 26 villages in Kalol, Kadi and Sanand blocks. Expressing reservations to the changed scheme, these farmers made representations before the authorities, but to no avail.
Finally, they formed a union and moved a PIL in HC stating that the original plan by DFCCIL was quite suitable to everyone. In this original plan, only a few farmers were to lose their land. But now with the change in alignment, a large number of farmers will be losing their cultivable and fertile lands.
Moreover, the counsel for the farmers also had contended that the change in alignment will not only adversely affect farmers, but it will also prove costly. There was a stay on the land acquisition for DFC since August 2012.
