Land-owners of Rattle Project running from pillar to post for compensation

Excelsior Correspondent
KISHTWAR, June 12: About 274 families in Darbshalla area in Inderwal Constituency of Kishtwar district are running from pillar to post for payment of compensation of 1100 kanals of cultivable land which has been occupied by the PDC for the construction of 850 mw Rattle Hydro Power Project.
The Project has been allotted to GVK Ltd an Andhra Pradesh based firm and the company has started work on the construction of project but the land owners are without compensation till date said, Shakti Parihar, BJP State Executive Member and a local leader of the area.
He said the PDC and Revenue Department have to occupy the land and Rs 32 crore has been sanctioned as compensation for the same to be distributed among the land owners but out of it only 1.22 crore have been disbursed till date while the rest farmers are visiting the concerned offices daily but to of no avail.
Parihar said that under Section 17 of the Revenue emergent acquisition the Government can’t delay the payment of compensation and 80 percent of the same is to be released immediately. The land has been demarked one year back and the farmers are not in a position to cultivate it. On one hand the poor farmers were deprived of the produce and other hand the authorities were delaying the compensation, he added.
Though, the rate for the compensation of land, has already been approved by the Government, the ACR Revenue was unnecessarily creating hurdles in disbursement of compensation, said Haji Mohammed Ayub whose land also comes in the Project. He said though 3200 kanals of the land is under the possession of the Project, 1100 kanals out of it are cultivable land and the authorities were supposed to release the compensation for the same which they are unnecessarily delaying.
He said under the Restoration and Rehabilitation Policy the Company constructing the Project was under obligation to provide jobs to affected families but they are reluctant saying that they have not been handed over the site by the Revenue and PDC authorities so they can’t take any decision as yet.
Shahid Rashid and Subash Parihar sarpanchs of village Duga Darbshalla and Badhat respectively in their separate appeals to Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah and Revenue Relief and Rehabilitation Minister, Raman Bhalla have sought their immediate intervention seeking the release of compensation in the favour of farmers.