Relief withdrawn, 72 Gurgaon villages up in arms, may boycott

Gurgaon, April 21

Residents of 72 villages in Gurugram’s IMT Maneser area may boycott the Lok Sabha elections after the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) served notices to take back Rs 35 lakh from a compensation amount given to the farmers for land acquisition.

The notices were served to meet the directives of a February 8 Supreme Court order to reverse the compensation amount in a time bound manner till June 30, 2019.

The villagers have decided to hold a Mahapanchayat on the issue in Dhana village on April 21. They have also threatened that the residents of 72 villages in the Maneser area would boycott the Lok Sabha elections on May 12 if Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and sitting BJP MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh did not sort out the matter.

According to Moolchand, sarpanch of Dhana village, the HSIIDC had acquired 1,700 acres of land for the Phase 1 of IMT Maneser in 2002-03, fixing a compensation amount of Rs 75 lakh per acre.

“Since the compensation amount was low, we challenged the decision in the ADJ’s court, which enhanced it to Rs 2.81 crore per acre on January 27, 2010,” he said.

“The farmers then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which further enhanced the compensation amount by Rs 37.4 lakh,” he added. On their plea, the SC on March 3, 2018, enhanced the per acre compensation amount by a further Rs 4 lakh.

However, on a private company’s plea, the SC on February 8, 2019, directed the HSIIDC to take back the additional compensation amount of Rs 35 lakh per acre. “This reversal of the court order is unacceptable,” said Devender Master of Baskusla village. — IANS