Baramulla: Residents of Audoora, Khal Gulistan Payeen, Gulistan, and adjacent villages in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district are up in arms against authorities for not compensating them for their land and fruit-bearing trees that have come under the PMGSY road project from Audoora to Gulistan Bala under package no JK05-2018.
The villagers said that despite many representations to the authorities, and even several years after completing the process of survey and assessments, the compensation for the land and fruit-bearing trees which came under the road has not been paid.
“We are being forced to fend for ourselves without any accountability on the part of authorities as nobody bothers about the poor farmers whose apple orchards were the only source of livelihood,” said Abdul Gaffar Chopan, a local resident of Khal Gulistan, whose land and fruit trees were taken for construction of the road.
“When the concerned department started construction of roads, we were promised due compensation for our land and trees. We submitted our land records to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and the Horticulture department conducted assessment and surveys, but despite the passage of several years, the compensation remains to be paid,” said Fayaz Ahmad Malik of Audoora.
According to sources, the Central government had approved Rs 577 crore under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme (PMRP) during 2004-05 for the acquisition of land for the construction of 907 road projects in J&K under the programme.
They further said that accordingly, the State Planning and Development department released Rs 577 crore to the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) during the period 2007 to 2011 for this purpose.
Out of this amount nearly Rs 146.78 crore were released in favour of six district collectors including those in Udhampur, Reasi, Rajouri, Doda, Pulwama, and Baramulla from 2007 to 2013 for the disposal of cases of land acquisition and structures coming in the alignment of road projects. However, as of now an amount of Rs 34.61 crore remains unutilized with the collectors as a result of which several cases are without disposal, they added.
“Despite the compensation element being a component of the PMGSY roads, its denial to poor farmers is a scam of huge magnitude which needs to be exposed and the guilty punished under the law,” the landowners say.
When contacted, Executive Engineer PMGSY Division Baramulla, Ikram Khan, told ‘Kashmir Images’ that compensation cases of the land-owners have been completed, but there is a paucity of funds for the same.
“Compensation would be provided to the farmers once we receive money for the same; compensation is their right. We are hopeful that within this month only funds for the same would be released,” he added.
