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Noida stir: ‘Hike’ in land prices in the offing
Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, July 28
Amidst protests by farmers of Noida and Greater Noida over higher compensation, sources informed that the authorities were considering raising land price by Rs 260 per square meter making it a total of Rs 1,110 per square meter.

The development comes two days after the Allahabad HC Division Bench of Justice Amitava Lala and Justice Ashok Srivastava had given the Uttar Pradesh government and farmers time till August 12 to negotiate an out-of-court settlement and resolve the dispute over compensation for land acquired in Noida Extension villages.

While the news of the decision to increase land rates could not be confirmed officially, CEO Noida Balwinder Kumar held a meeting at Sadarpur, the largest village in the area, yesterday to explore the possibilities of arriving at an agreement.

However, things are still not settling down as yet.

Farmers of Luksar village in Greater Noida today decided not to allow the under construction jail building from coming up on the land acquired from them for “industrial purposes”.

At the same time, Badalpur villagers in Gautam Buddha Nagar, the ancestral village of CM Mayawati, have filed a fresh petition in Allahabad High Court challenging acquisition of 230 hectares of land.

The petitioners have alleged that the state government had acquired the land in 2008 by invoking the urgency clause that the land was needed for industrial development of the area.

The petitioners have further said that the land was acquired in a discriminatory manner by exempting the plots belonging to influential land-owners. As many as 50 farmers from Badalpur village have filed petitions which would be heard on August 17 along with other petitions.