Farmers take out tractor march in Punjab, say less compensation being offered for lands
A large number of farmers in Punjab took out a tractor march in Patiala on Friday, claiming they were being offered much lesser compensation than the prevailing market rate for their land being acquired for the Delhi-Katra expressway.
The farmers marched towards the Patiala residence of the Punjab chief minister, but police stopped them midway. Some of the protesters then blocked the road leading to the chief minister’s residence.
Satnam Singh, a farmer who was part of the protest, told reporters that the compensation being offered by authorities concerned was not acceptable to them.
“We have been taking up the issue with state authorities that we should be given the prevailing market rate for the land being acquired. But what we are being offered is much less. We are also not satisfied with the compensation being offered for the shops and houses to be acquired for this expressway project, he said. Earlier, the farmers had demanded that the process to acquire land for the project should be stopped till the issue of three agricultural laws gets resolved.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is developing the 670 km Delhi-Amritsar-Katra greenfield expressway, which would provide connectivity to Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur and Jammu, under the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana. The expressway is to pass through eight of Punjab districts. The alignment of the expressway was firmed up in January 2019 and the process of land acquisition was initiated. Punjab
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday directed the state Water Resources department to identify more areas for relining of canals to check seepage and save the precious water resource.
Amarinder Singh was reviewing the works of the department through video conferencing, a statement said here.