Chandigarh: Barely a day after the Punjab government took possession of a portion of the land in Malerkotla acquired for the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway to report progress in the project ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 44th “Pragati” meet, hundreds of farmers clashed with the state police and reclaimed the land Wednesday.
Farmers demanding better acquisition prices managed to wrest the land away despite the district police and civil administration heavily guarding it. The prime minister’s meeting was underway in New Delhi when agitating farmers were forcing their way through multiple barricades and using vehicles to push away the policemen on duty. Video of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Malerkotla, Gagan Ajit Singh physically hurling himself before a moving Jeep driven by agitating farmers trying to break police barricades has since gone viral.
“The development could have become a major source of embarrassment to the state government but thankfully highway projects passing through election-bound states were not taken up for discussion during the meeting,” said a senior Punjab officer.
Modi was expected to review the status of multiple infrastructure projects across the country including the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway to be constructed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). The project—a significant portion of which runs through Punjab—has faced delays as farmers in Malerkotla, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, and Jalandhar refuse to give up their land demanding better prices from NHAI.
Wednesday’s re-possession of acquired land by protesting farmers has added to the challenges for Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who is under fire from the NHAI for his government’s “non-cooperation” in executing the project.
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had raised the matter with the chief minister earlier this month, warning that delays in the acquisition of land could lead to the cancellation of the key project. Mann had responded saying that the state government was doing its best but since the prices of land in Punjab were higher than in other states, farmers were expecting a better remuneration for their land.
In a push to secure the land, Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma wrote to Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav Sunday, urging him to deploy police forces to secure the possession of two small but crucial stretches—1.34 km in Malerkotla and 1.25 km in Kapurthala—by Tuesday. “You are requested to provide required police force to SSPs of Malerkotla and Kapurthala so that the above two stretches are cleared before the PRAGATI meeting,” wrote the chief secretary.
Following the chief secretary’s instructions, the Malerkotla administration, with police assistance, took physical possession of a piece of land in Sarod village, Ahmedgarh, which had been acquired for the project but was being held by protesting farmers. After securing the land, the Malerkotla police decided to maintain strict night vigil on the land.
Following this, the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan announced Tuesday that they will take back the possession of the land acquired “forcibly”.
Wednesday, the police put up multiple barricades on the road leading to Sarod village in preparation for protests. However, the agitating farmers managed to break through the barricades. Videos of the clash show farmers forcing the police to abandon trucks and tippers parked as barricades.
Jagtar Singh Kalajhar, the state secretary of BKU Ugrahan who led the protest at Malerkotla, Wednesday told media persons that until farmers get adequate compensation for their land, the kisan union will continue to repossess lands acquired for the project.
Apart from the Centre, the Mann government has been asked by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to ensure acquisition. Resuming hearing of a petition filed by the NHAI Friday, an admission bench of the HC headed by justice Sureshwar Thakur ordered the DGP to ensure acquisition of pending land for NHAI’s Delhi- Katra highway project and submit compliance within two weeks.
In Punjab, the NHAI is developing 1,500-km-long national highways at a cost of Rs 52,000 crore. However, projects worth Rs 42,000 crore are either stalled or delayed. In June, NHAI Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav wrote to the Punjab Chief Secretary, urging him to intervene. He pointed out that for 31 ongoing projects, covering 1,150 km and costing Rs 42,175 crore, complete land had not yet been delivered to the NHAI. Besides land acquisition issues, the chairman noted that Rs 3,700 crore in payments to landowners were pending in some projects, while in others, there were delays in announcing compensation awards.
In a 10 August letter to CM Mann, Gadkari said that the ongoing issues with land acquisition, apart from the law-and-order situation, had led some of the NHAI contractors to terminate their contracts. Gadkari pointed out that the NHAI had already terminated three projects in Punjab, amounting to Rs 3,263 crore, due to land availability challenges.
Sources in the Punjab government told ThePrint that for the construction of the 669-km, four-lane, access-controlled Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, land acquisition matters had been largely resolved at Patiala Sangrur and Pathankot. However, issues remained on small individual pieces of land in Malerkotla, Jalandhar and Kapurthala.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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