The jinx over the much-delayed peripheral ring road (PRR) project continues as farmers who will lose land have summarily rejected the compensation package offered by the government — a mix of returning developed land and cash compensation.
Farmers’ insistence on full cash compensation as per the 2013 Land Acquisition Act, will only leave the government having to bear the total cost of Rs. 8,100 crore for acquisition, which neither the State nor the Union government is ready to do. A meeting of the government with land-losers on Thursday remained inconclusive. Thus the impasse over the project continues.
The State Cabinet on Wednesday gave an in-principle approval for a proposal by the Chief Secretary-led committee on the PRR that stuck to the earlier Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) proposal of reducing the road width to 75 metres from its original 100 metres, and giving back developed land in the 25-metre zone as two-thirds of the compensation package. To attract farmers for this compensation scheme, the committee also suggested that the floor-area ratio (FAR) in this zone be doubled and commercial activity permitted. The farmers were offered the rest one-thirds of compensation in cash.
However, farmers’ leaders on Thursday insisted that they were not ready to accept the 75 m-25 m scheme. While, the meeting did see some heated arguments between farmers and Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George, the farmers stuck to their stand.
“We are ready to give up 100 m also for the road, if we are duly compensated. But what the government is now suggesting is real estate development on our land, which we will not allow. If they are doing a road of 75 m, let them acquire only that much and compensate us for that. Their land acquisition costs would also come down by that measure,” said Janardhan Reddy, a farmers’ leader from Varthur.
“We have already suffered because of the project for over a decade now. We haven’t been able to even procure loans, hampering our children’s education and marriage prospects too. Now the 25-m zone will push us into the clutches of land mafia, which we are not ready to handle,” rued Sidde Gowda, who would lose land.
Mr. George said the notification of land as per the 100-m width plan had been upheld by the Supreme Court and it would not be changed. “The farmers cannot decide on what land the government should notify. We will again hold consultations with them over the compensation scheme,” he said.
The Chief Secretary-led committee on the PRR has now come up with an Area Development Plan, from which they expect to raise an estimated Rs. 10,000 crore in the next 15 years.
The BDA has now proposed to declare 100 m on either side of the PRR as a commercial zone, beyond which they propose to declare a 30-m-wide service road in the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for the area. The government will declare an area of 1 km on either side of the road beyond the 30-m service road as ‘PRR Impact Area’, where mixed use of land will be allowed by paying the BDA a betterment charge.
Thus the impact area of 1 km on either side of the 65-km-long road will open up over 130 sq. km area for development, from which government estimates to earn the Rs. 10,000 crore as betterment fee, when it is developed.
The government now suggests to return a portion of the land in the 25-m zone to farmers as two-thirds of the compensation.
