The Thanjavur District Cauvery Farmers Protection Association (TDCFPA) has filed a petition in Madras High Court seeking a direction to officials to calculate compensation under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 for lands to be acquired for construction of a barrage across the Coleroon near Anaikkarai.
According to TDCFPA secretary, Sundara Vimalanathan of Swamimalai, the petition points out that officials who have initiated the process of land acquisition by holding a meeting at Kumbakonam recently have informed land owners that they are entitled to a compensation of ₹1.25 lakh per acre. However, the compensation amount should be four times the the market value under the Act.
The barrage is planned to be built at a cost of ₹400 crore. Although ryots have registered their protest over the decision with respect to the compensation amount and followed it up with petitions to Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, the Public Works department seems to have accorded permission to the contractor a fortnight ago to go ahead with the work.
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Stating that around 200 acres of land have been identified for acquisition from around 130 farmers in Kumaramangalam on the southern side of the Coleroon and Aadhanur on the northern bank for the purpose, the TDCFPA secretary claimed that the market value for an acre in the area hovers around ₹12 lakh to ₹15 lakh.
Since the land is so fertile, cultivation of horticulture crops, flowers, oil seeds, casuarina, teak and coconut yields an annual income of not less than ₹3 lakh per acre to the cultivators.
What is more worrying is that the officials have taken such a stand when the ryots in and around Kumaramangalam and Aadhanur have not raised any objections to implementation of the project, which also provides transportation facility across the Coleroon in the form of barrage-cum-bridge, compared to the vociferous protests witnessed against the Chennai-Salem eight-lane project.
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Hence, the association has filed a petition in Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on the issue of compensation, he added.