Kandi railway sangharsh committee members protest outside SDM office

Our Correspondent

Talwara, April 4

Members of the Kandi Kshetriya Railway Prabhavit Sangharsh Committee today organised a dharna for their demands outside the office of Mukerian SDM. Members of the committee said under the proposed Nangal Dam-Talwara rail line as part of the Una Rail Project, the administration has started the process of land acquisition in the border villages of Bhatoli, Bhavnaur, Ramgarh Sikri, Kartli, Nangal Khanora. The protest was led by the general secretary of Jamhoori Kisan Sabha Pargast Singh Jamarai and Sarpanch Deepak Thakur. They said the landlords of the affected villages are angry about the meager compensation being given for their land. According to the land owners, since the beginning of the process of land acquisition, till now, the affected families were not informed by the administration about the process of fixation of compensation amount. They alleged that the local administration is pressurising the people to take the meager compensation amount and they are being asked to approach the court if they have any objection over the compensation amount being given by the officer appointed for allotting the compensation. The landlords have also accused the administration of acquiring their land and properties for lesser money.

Affected residents Sunil Kumar Kartali and Vijay Kumar Nangal Khanora said in the process of land acquisition started by the administration, land owners are being given compensation amount at the rate of Rs 2,200 to 2,700 per marla which is very less. “Whereas for the same project, in the border state of Himachal Pradesh, the administration has paid much more amount as compensation”, said they.

Sarpanch Deepak Thakur said, “Victims have contacted SDM Mukerian many times and narrated their problem, but the administration did not consider it appropriate to pay attention to it. Against this, people of five villages have united under the banner of Kandi Kshetra Railway Prabhavit Sangharsh Samiti and staged a sit-in at the SDM office Mukerian for payment of the fair price of their land.

A memorandum was handed over to SDM who promised to take up the matter and find a solution with in week’s time but we have given two weeks’ time to the administration for it and if the problem is not solved in the given time, we will quicken the stir”.