??|?? October 27, 2012 ?? 09:32am ??|
CHANDIGARH: It was meant to be Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township but in three years it has turned out to be a model for Haryana government and realty dealers on how to ?rob? farmers of their land for ?fictitious? projects.
The plight of farmers, who were forced to sell off their land to big colonizers at Lakhnoda, Naurangpur and Manesar villages in Gurgaon district, exposes the flaws in the government?s ill-conceived urbanisation plan. A few of the aggrieved farmers have already moved the high court seeking justice. The modus operandi of the government was very simple. On August 27, 2004, the Haryana government, headed by Om Prakash Chautala, initiated proceedings for acquiring 912 acre land in three villages ? Lakhnoda, Naurangpur and Manesar ? under Section 4 of the acquisition Act to set up Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township.
After the announcement, villagers panicked as the government?s agriculture land acquisition rate of around Rs 15 lakhs per acre was very low. It led to panic selling. It was the right time for land sharks to enter the field and purchase chunks of land at very low prices of around Rs 15-16 lakhs per acre.
The township was to be developed by industries and commerce department through Haryana State Industries and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), which was the nodal agency for execution of the project. HSIIDC was also supposed to bear the expenses for compensation of land acquisition and other developments. To add to the farmers? woes, Chautala lost the %elections in 2005 and Bhupinder Singh Hooda came into power in February 2005.
Between 2004 and 2005, huge chunks of the agriculture land in the three villages were bought by realtors and colonizers. In several cases, the real estate developers had obtained change of land use (CLU) licences from the town and country planning department for setting up residential and commercial complexes in the area. By the time Hooda government decided to proceed with the project on August 26, 2006, only 688 acre land was left for acquisition.
After further deliberations, the land acquisition collector of Gurgaon issued three notices to industries department in August 2007 to deposit Rs 285.7 crores for disbursal of compensation to farmers for acquiring their land.
However, the industrial department admitted in a letter to the HSIIDC that the land without any encumbrances was yet to be identified and that it was awaiting another notification from the government for the process. By then, the notification for completing the land acquisition procedures lapsed on August 27, 2007, which gave the Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township a silent burial. According to sources, the government deliberately allowed the notification to lapse as major chunk of the land was bought by realtors and colonizers who also had obtained CLU licences for the same. They said DLF, Ansals, Omaxe and Maxpolis groups were among the colonizers who were given CLU licences for housing and commercial complexes in these villages.
At present, the collector rate for agriculture land in these villages is Rs 1.40 crores per acre ? a nine-fold increase from 2004 to 2012. However, the market price of land in the area now is Rs 70 crores per acre.
Realising that they have been robbed of their land, a few villagers moved the Punjab and Haryana high court, which has barred the colonizers and the government to enter into any third party agreement. ?The government has connived with colonizers. Initially the government pressed the panic button forcing us to sell our land to real estate companies in 2004-2005 at throwaway rates. All the land acquisition officers were aware of the fate of the project but they allowed land sharks to buy plots till 2007 and let the notification lapse,? said Om Parkash, former sarpanch of Manesar village, who is leading the villagers? court battle.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Industrial-Model-Township-project-a-plot-to-help-land-sharks/articleshow/16974651.cms
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