Provide relief for land acquisition, demand Abohar residents

Abohar, December 29

Traffic came to a halt on the circular road near the railway station on Friday as residents of Seed Farm and other localities took out a protest rally. Many people failed to board their trains as the police were nowhere to be seen to regulate the traffic.

The protesters, who were supported and joined by various labour and farmer organisations, were demanding fair compensation for the land to be acquired by the Central Government for the highway bypass to be built under the Bharatmala Project.

Residents of Seed Farm, Ajit Nagar and Dhani Kadaka Singh, along with their families, took part in the rally that passed through various markets of the city in which hundreds raised slogans against the Centre and the state government. Before dispersing, they burnt the effigy of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann at the new grain market.

Protesters said farmers and labourers here had colonised the land since 1939. Hundreds of families were dependent on cultivation. Now the government is constructing a bypass to link Fazilka Road with Malout Road under the Bharat Mala Project, due to which they would become homeless.

The said they would resist the acquisition unless the government gave them the proper compensation. They alleged the Central Government had released compensation to the state government but the latter was refusing to pay a share to the affected settlers.

MLA Sandeep Jakhar, who supported the demand, said he took up the matter with the local administration but was told that the ownership rights of Seed Farm land were with the state government and there was no legal provision to give compensation to the settlers.