Veeri reviews land acquisition process for Ring Road projects

Minister for Revenue, A R Veeri chairing a meeting at Jammu on Thursday.
Minister for Revenue, A R Veeri chairing a meeting at Jammu on Thursday.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 22: Minister for Revenue, Hajj & Auqaf and Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rehman Veeri today chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of land acquisition proceedings for construction of Ring Road projects around Srinagar and Jammu cities and discussed the issues hampering the exercise.
MLA Marh, Sukhnandan Choudhary, Financial Commissioner Revenue, Lokesh Jha, Commissioner Secretary Revenue, Shahid Inayatullah, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Hemant Sharma, DC Jammu, Kumar Rajiv Ranjan, ACR Jammu and concerned land collectors attended the meeting.
The Minister was briefed by the Divisional Commissioner Jammu with regard to the status of the land acquisition proceedings including issuance of final award and disbursement of land compensation to the owners.
The meeting also discussed the issues deliberately which are causing delay in the completion of land acquisition process.
It was informed that the efforts were being made to provide the land compensation which was fair and in accordance with the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.
Veeri directed the land collectors to maintain/update the record of the land identified for the project so that there is no confusion during completing the required formalities and disbursement of land compensation to the beneficiaries.
He sought the details from the concerned land collectors of final awards issued and compensation disbursed to the beneficiaries so far.
MLA Sukhnandan Choudhary raised various issues concerning farmers whose land is to be acquired for the project and sought intervention of the Minister for redressal of the issues.
The Minister assured the legislator that all genuine issues would be looked into. He directed the concerned land collectors to go by the original updated revenue record while doing the land acquisition proceedings so that real beneficiary receives the compensation against the land.
Jammu city Ring Road Project involves an area of 342 hectares spread over Jammu & Samba districts, while as, Srinagar city Ring Road project involves an area of 278 hectares spread over six districts viz Budgam, Baramulla, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Pulwama and Srinagar.