Chandauli (Uttar Pradesh), May 31 (IANS) After facing violent protests against land acquisition in Bhatta-Parsaul villages of Greater Noida, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to scrap acquisition proceedings in the state’s Chandauli district where also the farmers were up in arms, an official said Tuesday.
‘I have recommended to the government that we should withdraw the acquisition notices issued under section 4 and section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act,’ District Magistrate Vijay Kumar Tripathi told reporters in Chandauli, about 325 km from Lucknow.
He declined to explain what led the administration to roll back its decision on the acquisition.
However, the move follows a week-long sustained campaign by farmers against acquisition of 121 hectares of land in Katesar village of the district. The land was to be taken over for building ‘New Kashi’ city as a parallel to the neighbouring Varanasi.
The demonstrating farmers had even held the local sub-divisional magistrate captive for almost 18 hours Friday.
Local farmer Dina Nath, who had emerged as a leader of the anti-acquisition campaign, has hailed the government’ move, which he attributed to the unity and sustained agitation by the farmers.
‘Thank God, realisation dawned on the administration that it was unfair on its part to take away the farmers’ rich agricultural land for urbanization,’ Dina Nath told reporters.
‘There was plenty of non-cultivable land available for that purpose and the government could easily acquire that,’ he added.
