Over 200 land owners agree to give land for Jewar airport

Representational picture

Over 200 land owners in Jewar agreed Saturday to give their lands for a proposed international airport in Gautam Buddh Nagar district, taking the overall consent of affected families to 71 per cent, local MLA Dhirendra Singh said.

According to the provisions of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, the consent of at least 70 per cent of land owners is mandatory for government to proceed with acquisition of land in any such project. Over 1,300 hectare of land from five villages - Rohi, Parohi, Dayanatpur, Ranhera and Kishorpur is to be acquired during the first phase of green field project. A total of 5,000 hectares of land is to be acquired for the green field airport estimated worth Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crore.

"As many as 202 landowners submitted their consent letter to Arunveer Singh, the chief executive officer of Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority and District Magistrate Brajesh Narayan Singh today," MLA Dhirendra Singh said. With this, the consent of 4,210 families out of the total 5,926 affected families has been taken. This means 71 per cent of the families have agreed for the acquisition of the land, he said in a statement. District Magistrate Brajesh Narayan Singh told PTI that the administration would soon provide the details of agreement to the state government.

"After the government's response, a notification for acquisition of the land would be issued as per Section 11 of the act," he said. Asked how much time the process would take, the district magistrate said his administration would forward the details within a week. Meanwhile, the MLA assured farmers and villagers of proper rehabilitation and resettlement. He also said though the "Laxman Rekha" has been cleared (the mandatory 70 per cent consent), the process to get the consent of the remaining families would continue. "Today is a historic day and will be marked in golden letters in the pages of history. Farmers, who consider their land as their mother and attack emotional value to it, have agreed to donate their land for the development of the state and the country and the future generations.

"I want to assure all farmers that we would live up to the promises made to you regarding rehabilitation and resettlement and also make effort to improve on them," Singh told a gathering of villagers in Dayanatpur. Some landowners, including farmers and villagers, initially resisted the land acquisition citing various reasons such as "inadequate" compensation amount and related benefits besides the resettlement policy. The proposed airport, second in the national capital region, is likely to be functional by 2022-23, if the land is acquired.

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