Abadi land dispute: Pvt agency to handle cases
NOIDA: Amid a crunch in staff and backlash from farmers, the Noida authority has roped in a private agency to lease residential land back to farmers, officials said on Thursday.
“We have roped in an agency to conduct a survey on the cases where the farmers’ abadi (habitation) existed before 2011. Once the agency determines this, we will start leasing residential land back to the farmers,” said Pravin Mishra, the additional chief executive officer of Noida authority.
The Noida authority has decided to resolve the leaseback cases after the farmers protested against the authority for not leasing the land back to them.
“In view of this, we have leased 80 lands (related to old cases) in five villages back to the farmers. And now, we will also go to other villages and leaseback lands to the farmers... We have hired an agency to study the new cases. wherein the authority and the farmers are in a dispute over land claims. The study is going to be completed in a month. If the farmers claim that the land was used for residential purposes before 2011, we do not have any issue in leasing it back to them,” Mishra added.
The authority had acquired agricultural land and houses of the farmers for planned development of industrial, residential, group housing, and commercial
projects in the city decades ago. Farmers have been protesting the acquisition, saying that the residential land was meant for their families.
The authority, however, has argued that the land was for the development projects in the city. Later, the farmers said that they could let go of the agricultural land, but not the residential land meant for their families.
Leaseback means that the authority will give the land acquired for developmental purposes back to farmers.
Meanwhile, the farmers said that the authority should resolve the leaseback cases at the earliest instead of delaying it any further.
“The Noida authority started acquiring the land from 1976, but the leaseback cases are yet to be resolved. Why is it taking so long? We hope that the authority will not delay the process any further,” said Anil Yadav, a senior farmer leader from Navada village.