The fight for fair compensation of the farmers of Vemulaghat is far from over. The High Court questioning the Government on revision of land rates may push it to ask the officials to revise the rate, but the question remains whether the officials would get adequate time for following due process.
The farmers of Vemulaghat falling under Mallannasgar have been fighting for the implementation of ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act – 2013’ and they have even approached the High Court which directed the Government to follow the guidelines in the Act.
After government has issued notification the farmers again approached the court demanding revision of rates pointing out that they were not revised since 2013.
Due process
According to sources, a three member committed headed by Revenue Divisional Officer in rural areas and Joint Collector in urban areas would fix the rate of the land.
A memo issued last year by the Commissioner and Inspector General of Registration and Stamps states: “They (the officials) shall interact with the elders of the village, revenue officials, panchayat officials and ascertain prevailing market values for the sites and acres for various types of properties. They may obtain information in writing, wherever possible, from the officials.”
“The exercise shall be done very carefully. Abundant caution shall be exercised in collecting correct information relating to open market values. The brochures, advertisements and other publicity material of the real estate dealers and of builders may also be used as one of the sources. The land acquisition compensation, open auctions by revenue by revenue/ cooperative officials, banks may be gathered to find the trends,” the memo suggests. It has also noted that there are considerable variations in the villages abutting each other and in respect of agriculture lands the prevailing open market values have to be ascertained from revenue and panchayat officials.
“We have to visit those areas and inquire about open market rate by interacting with locals and it needs a minimum of two months. We are likely to be given only one month and finalisation of proforma itself will take more than two weeks and we will be left with very little time to revise rates to a realistic level,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
