MP: Farmers of Lok Sabha Constituency of BJP State Chief Wandering for Compensation Since 2017

BHOPAL / The hundreds of farmers of Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency, which is represented by Madhya Pradesh BJP state chief V D Sharma in Parliament, are yet to receive compensation due to announce an incorrect award by a Sub Division Officer (SDO) of revenue for their land acquired by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in 2017 to widen NH 39.

The NHAI had on 25 March 2017 acquired land of the farmers of the 7 villages of Rajnagar sub-division of Chhatarpur district to construct a four-lane National Highways-39 connecting Jhansi and Khajuraho but the then SDO of Rajnagar Sub Division of Chhatarpur, Sonia Meena who was also the Land Acquisition Officer (LAO), had made a major mistake in calculating the compensation of the acquired land while announcing the award, due to which the farmers have been bearing the bite of the stupidness of the revenue officer. They have been running till now from pillar to post to get compensation but no one is paying heed towards their grievances.

However, the farmers have several times met their Lok Sabha MP, V D Sharma and they have expressed their concern on this issue but the problem is yet unsolved.

Even after being an IAS officer, Meena had made a major mistake which has become unfortunate for the poor farmers of the Bundelkhand which is considered a poverty region for most of the residents there.

“The NHAI acquired my 0.110-hectare land of survey nos 1118/1 and 1118/2/2 and announced a compensation of Rs 128,709 in the award while my neighbor, Shakuntala Jain whose land’s survey no is 1118/2/1 was got Rs 1119,683  against her 040-hectare. The LAO had calculated a contradictory and a wrongful award,” S Sharma, a landowner of Basari village told The Sun Today. “Hundreds of farmers of the area have been running since then from pillar to post to get compensation but no one is helping us,” she said.

In the award, the LAO, who is also a competent authority under The Right Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 for compensating the acquired land, had made a major mistake in calculating the award for the area above 0.050-hectare. According to the RFCTLARR Act 2013 and National Highways Act 1956, up to 0.050 lands must be calculated considering as plot area and the remained area as agricultural fields. In the award, more than 0.050-hectare area had been calculated as agricultural land.

The villagers of Basari, Deogaon, Ganj, Satna, Khairi and Ghoora submitted a complaint to the SDO Rajnagar Saloni Sadana, till then Sonia had been transferred to another place from there.

Considering the complaints, the competent authority had on 13 March 2018 passed a supplementary award but the project director of NHAI is yet to release the amount against the acquired land.

Some farmers have also filed the application at divisional commissioner Sagar in this regard for arbitrations but it is still pending.

“If any supplementary award in this regard has been passed by the then SDO then I will get implemented it by the NHAI in the interest of farmers,” D P Dwivedi, SDO Rajnagar told The Sun Today. Another farmer Govinddas Kushwaha said that the SDO passed the award blindly, in which several mistakes had been made and it has poured into the poor farmers in difficulties.