The Allahabad High Court has fixed August 17 as the next date of hearing on the petitions challenging acquisition of land in Noida and Greater Noida and has referred the matter to a larger Bench.
At the same time farmers of Noida extension villages in Gautam Buddha Nagar district and the State government (development authorities) have been given the option of re-negotiating and settling the compensation related issues till August 12.
A Division Bench of Justice Amitava Lala and Justice Ashok Srivastava, while referring the petitions to the Chief Justice and for the constitution of a larger bench, said that the farmers and the development authorities could settle the compensation related matter by August 12. About 250 petitions were filed by farmers of about 10 villages in Noida extension whose land had been acquired by the Noida and Greater Noida development authorities.
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The petitioners challenged the acquisition of land by invoking the “urgency clause” of the Land Acquisition Act.
Earlier, Justice R.K. Agarwal and Justice Sunil Hali recused themselves from hearing a petition filed by the farmers of Deola village. The matter was referred to the Chief Justice by the judges.
About 100 hectares of land at Deola had been acquired by the development authority. The acquisition, by invoking the urgency clause, was challenged by the farmers whose land had been acquired.
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The farmers of Noida and Greater Noida have been agitating for getting more compensation for the land acquired. In a bid to appease the farmers, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Noida Balvinder Kumar on Monday reportedly agreed to allot 5 per cent of the developed plots from next week, and also to regularize the “abaadi” or populated areas. However, the final decision would be taken by the State government.