Talks between farmers, UP industrial authority fail

BULANDSHAHR: The meeting between farmers, officials of UP State Industrial Development Corporation and Tehri Hydro Development Corporation over decision on land compensation rates failed to reach a conclusion with villagers demanding the same land compensation rates as given to farmers in Greater Noida.

The meeting came in the wake of decision by the UP government to install a 1320 Megawatt Thermal Power Station at Arniya block here which requires acquisition of 1200 acres of land of five villages of the development block.

The proposed power house is to be built by THDC. The affected farmers demanded land compensation at par with land required at Greater Noida.

According to village Pradhan Doonlal of Dusshera, in one of the five villages affected by acquisition, the state government offered them rates equivalent to Circle Rates prevailing in the area which is currently Rs 1,150 per square metre.

But the problem for farmers is that the UPSIDC has already paid them compensation for a plastic factory in 1991, which was never built. The farmers claimed they had taken the compensation from authorities under protest in 1991.