Noida: 644 farmers receive residential plots after 9 yrs

NOIDA: After a delay of more than nine years, the Noida authority on Saturday allotted developed residential plots to 644 eligible farmers whose land was acquired for urbanisation prior to 1997. The authority allotted the plots through a lucky draw under a scheme launched in July 2011, officials said.

The draw event at Indira Gandhi Kala Kendra started at 9pm and went on till 1am, the officials said, adding that many farmers stayed at the centre till late night.

“We followed all laid down rules to organise the lucky draw and allotted the plots to those farmers, who were found eligible,” said Santosh Upadhyay, officer on special duty (OSD), Noida authority.

The authority could not allot the plots in the past nine years due to objections from farmers with regard to plot rate and dispute over the eligibility criteria. The authority finally decided to allot the 644 plots (each having an area of 162 square metres) at a rate of ₹29,000 per sqm and farmers agreed, officials said.

The authority had launched the scheme after farmers’ consistent demands for the same.

“The Noida authority allotted 5% (of total land acquired) residential plots to those farmers, whose land was acquired after 1997 following an order of the Allahabad high court. Subsequently, those farmers whose land was acquired between 1976 and 1997 started demanding plots. So, the authority had come up with the plot scheme,” said a Noida authority official, not authorized to speak to media.

A total of 3,788 farmers had applied for the plots in 2011. Subsequently, 1,904 farmers were found to be eligible for the scheme. “We organised the lucky draw for 1,904 farmers and selected successful allottees for 644 plots,” said Upadhyay.

The farmers who could not get the plots after the lucky draw said that they should also be given the plots. “We kept demanding a rate less than the market rate but nothing happened. The authority should have provided plots to all the eligible farmers, including their heir after death of an original land owner,” said Raghuraj Singh, a farmer leader.

We followed all laid down rules to organise the lucky draw and allotted the plots to the eligible farmers SANTOSH UPADHYAY,

OSD, Noida authority