Port project: Land price upsets villagers

Sahibganj: Shanti Devi, the newly elected member of the panchayat samity at Sakrigali Rampur, is unable to face the electorate who ask her uncomfortable questions about compensation for giving land for the inland port project.
Over a 1,000 families residing in Seejh, Mushairi, Ashram Nayatola and Samda-nala of Sakrigali area are likely to be displaced.But these villagers, who own fertile farmland and mango orchards on the banks of the Ganga, are worried that they would not be adequately compensated.
Birbal Mandal, Shanti Devi's husband, said, "We purchased land here at Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per kattha. But the government is offering Rs. 24,000 per kattha and still claims that this is four times the prevailing land rate as per the new land acquisition policy."
Baleshwar Yadav, who is set to lose his land to the project, is disappointed at the paltry compensation offer. "One tree is going to give us not less than fruits worth Rs 20,000 this season," he said.
Sahibganj DC Umesh Prasad Singh admitted that there were some discrepancies in fixing the land rate and the government has decided to revise it. "There are some people who have purchased land at a lower rate on paper to save registration fee. Now they are at a loss when the land rate is being fixed," he said, adding that land on which people are residing for more than 50 years were categorized as agriculture land in the last land survey of 1932.
"The government has decided to reconsider them and has constituted a committee under the commissioner of Santhal Pargana to decide a formula for fixing land rate," he added.
Sources in the department of revenue and land reforms said the committee, headed by the Santhal Pargana commissioner and comprising DCs of all six districts of the division, has adopted a two-point formula for deciding land price. The new rates will be applicable in Santhal Pargana where maximum portion of land is otherwise notified as non-saleable. One of the senior officials in the department said the Santhal Pagrana Tenancy Act notifies land as non-saleable but can be acquired by government after payment of compensation under new land acquisition policy.
The committee headed by Commissioner has decided to take two aspects into consideration for deciding rate of land. "It would be either 30 times the value of agricultural produce over a plot or at par with the prevailing rate of sellable land in the same circle or adjacent circle," Sahebganj DC said.
As the meeting was not attended by Godda DC in the wake of impending bypolls and model code of conduct, final decision in this regard is likely to be taken soon after the elections are over.