Lucknow:
The Uttar Pradesh government today announced a rehabilitation policy with the provision of annuity for farmers against acquisition of their land.
"The state government has decided to implement a new rehabilitation policy under which a host of facilities will be offered to the farmers against acquisition of land," Cabinet
secretary Shahshank Shekhar Singh told reporters in Lucknow on Friday.
The UP government had to give in to the farmers demands for better compensation after 6 weeks of protests by farmers against land acquisition for the Yamuna Expressway project. The farmers wanted Rs 870 per square foot, that's 50 % higher than what the government was offering, saying that it was the going rate for farmland in neighbouring Noida.
Under the new land acqusition policy announced on Friday, every farmer who loses all his land gets Rs 1.85 lakh per acre, for the next 5 years. Others have a choice of taking an annuity of Rs 20,000 per acre for the next 33 years, or taking Rs 2.4 lakh per are as a one-time pay-off.
"If the land is acquired for a company, the farmers will have an option of taking share up to 25 per cent of the total cost of land," the UP cabinet secretary said.
If the land is acquired for developmental projects, seven per cent reservation would be allotted to the affected farmers for residential purposes. "Minimum area of the plot will be 120 square metre and the maximum limit will be decided by the authority concerned," Singh said.
If a residential scheme is implemented on the acquired land, then the affected farmers will get 17.5 per cent reservation in the allotment of plot.
Since the farmers' protests hit the headlines, Mayawati has tried everything to bring it under control. She even tried to turn it on its head by belligerently criticising the Centre's land acquisition law. But that did not help.
With the Assembly elections barely two years away, and the competition from the Congress that is getting tougher each day, the Uttar Pades Chief Minister has now been forced to give in to the farmers' demands.
(with PTI inputs)