Every judgment went in their favor. But still the farmers, who gathered for the mahapanchayat in Bisrak village on Wednesday 20th July 2011, following the Allahabad High Court’s order that the Greater Noida Authority and real estate developers have to give back 600 hectares of acquired land to the farmers, were not just happy.
The reason behind their unhappiness is that the HC verdict does not talk anything about any remedy or gives direction. The farmers do not wish to take back the land as it cannot be used for any agricultural purpose in the next 10 years due to the amount of concrete that has already gone into it. Apart from this even the water table level has dipped from 30 feet to about 120 feet in the region.
The compensation that was offered to the farmers for the land acquired in the year 2008 and 2009 has already been spent on purchasing new land, on flats in Noida, on constructing their homes, on expensive cars and bikes, on lavish weddings and repaying debts. Most of them today do not have means to return back the compensation amount that they got for their land. In Patwari village the total land acquired was about 600 hectares for which over 450 crore was paid as the total compensation amount to the farmers.
That’s why the farmers yearn for a better compensation from the Greater Noida Industrial Authority and also wish that they should be made shareholders in the future development of the region. The farmers want that the compensation amount should be 50% of the money at which the real estate developers bought land from the authority. The farmers further added that under the rehabilitation policy, they want a fixed stake in the land price hike in the region for the next 33 years. Apart from this, they also want that the village land which was earlier acquired by the Authority should be given back to them on lease without any pre-conditions applied by the authority on the same.
The farmers said that they are not against the developments taking place in the area but they also want to become a part of the development taking place. They also want that good schools, hospitals and colleges should be set up for them in the area.
Out of the 600 hectares of land acquired in Patwari village only 15% of the land was allotted to developers. 15% was kept for educational institutes, about 15% was kept for IT parks and another 15% were marked for Noida authority plots. Remaining 40% was marked for infrastructural developments like roads, bridges, parks, and other public services.
Brig RR Singh, Director-General of National Real Estate Development Council opine that since the construction of the housing projects and external infrastructure development has already been started by the developers and the Greater Noida Development Authority respectively, and as a huge amount of money has been spent on the same, so the Courts should consider these factors so that the interest of all the stakeholders – the farmers, home buyers and the developers can be protected. He proposed that the compensation amount for farmers should be rationally raised and thus the authority can reacquire the land from them.
Developers whose projects have been affected due to this situation had a four-hour long meeting on Wednesday to work out a plan to handle the current situation. The developers stated that they have decided to return back the money to home buyers but only after the Greater Noida Authority opts to refund their money along with the amount that they spent on construction so far.
Although the people who have already bought flats in Noida Extension are not willing to take back their money. They want to own their homes. After the High Court’s verdict, the Noida Extension Flat Buyers Welfare Association, which has about 2,600 members, has decided to file a petition in the Allahabad HC to be made a party in the pending cases associated with Noida Extension so that they can also raise their issues in the Court and get a relief. GL Sagar, secretary of the association said that they don’t want refund. They want their flats. In the current real estate scenario, there is no other option available at this price. If they will take back the money then their dream of becoming a home owner will be shattered.
It’s a tough situation which requires deft handling by all the concerned parties to reach to an amicable solution to this situation
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Posts Tagged Greater Noida Industrial Authority
Allahabad High Court scraps another Noida Extension acquisition
On 19th July 2011 another verdict was given by the Allahabad High Court that scraped another land acquisition in Noida Extension by the Greater Noida Industrial Authority. 589 hectares of land was acquired by the Authority in Patwari village, in Noida Extension, by bringing into play the urgency clause. The land was purchased for the industrial development in the region but it was given away to real estate developers for numerous residential and commercial projects.
This decision of the Allahabad High Court came after a fortnight following the Supreme Court’s order which defended the high court’s order regarding cancellation of land acquisition of more than 150 hectares in Shahberi village.
A division bench comprising of Justices Sunil Ambawani and S S Tiwari scraped the land acquisition stating that ther was no need to bring up the urgency clause. The court gave the verdict on a group of petitions filed by the farmers from Patwari village.
According to Parminder Bhati, the farmers’ lawyer, this decision of the High Court will surely bring respite to at least 1,600 farmers from the region. He further added that this decision will adversely affect almost 18 big and small developers who have launched or own the land in the area.
The court rejected some of the affidavits that were presented before him by the government lawyer. These affidavits stated that villagers have no objection to the land acquisition and have been satisfactorily compensated. Bhati told that the court ignored all these affidavits.
He said that some of the farmers in Patwari village had accepted compensation but a large number of farmers had refused to the same.
The land acquisition process in Patwari Village was initiated on March 12, 2008. But in September 2009, the Greater Noida Industrial Authority brought into play the urgency clause under Section 17(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 — which offers for abstaining from the right of a tenure holder to a hearing on whether he wishes to sell off his land or not — and acquired possession of 589.13 hectares of land on papers. The farmers’ counsel said that the physical possession of the land had not started by that time.
In the coming few days, the court would be giving out verdicts about alike petitions which comprise of at least eight more villages from Noida Extension where developers have launched numerous housing projects.
On 20th July 2011, the villagers from Roja and Yakubpur villages are expecting to get another verdict from the high court on the petition filed by them, following which the petitions filled by the village residents from Bisrakh, Itehda, Haibatpur, Ghanola and Malcha would be decreed. On 26th July 2011, the petition filed by the villagers from Dewla is expected to be decided by the high court.
In Noida Extension, 12 projects from 11 builders are affected that include:
- Supertech Eco Village
- Nirala – Nirala Estate
- Patel Group – Neo Town
- Arihant – Arden Arihant
- Eros group – Sampurnam
- Amrapali – Leisure Park, Spring Medows
- Panchsheel – Hinish
- Stellar- Jeevan Project
- Earth Group – Towne
- Paramount – Emotions
- Ajnara
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