Last year, the Allahabad high court heard about 500 petitions from 60-odd villages in Noida and Greater Noida and hiked post-acquisition benefits to farmers.
About 500 more quash-acquisition petitions filed by 5,000-odd farmers also reached the court. The court had set a cut-off date and these petitions reached late. They are being heard now.
The court has itself termed the filing of petitions a tsunami. Justice SU Khan, a member of the three-judge bench of the Allahabad high court that delivered the Noida/Greater Noida land acquisition judgment, said, “A bunch of more than 1,000 writ petitions (about half of which are to be decided after this judgment) have been filed.”
The court has observed that almost all the land acquisitions in Noida and Greater Noida have been challenged. “The total number of petitioners is more than 10,000. Similar petitions are still being filed. It is not opening of flood gate. It is tsunami,” the judge said.
Courts have established land was acquired forcibly for industries but allotted to builders. The total number of cases lodged so far against the Noida authority and the Greater Noida authority has gone up to 3,500 and 900, respectively. The Yamuna authority is also not much behind. This year alone it had more than 500 cases filed against it.
All the three authorities are spending crores of rupees in pursuance of these cases. In the last one year, farmers have lodged about 1,500 fresh cases against the three industrial development authorities in Gautam Budh Nagar—Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway—and challenged land acquisition. The trend began when courts set aside land takeovers and hiked benefits to farmers in some cases.
{{/usCountry}}All the three authorities are spending crores of rupees in pursuance of these cases. In the last one year, farmers have lodged about 1,500 fresh cases against the three industrial development authorities in Gautam Budh Nagar—Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway—and challenged land acquisition. The trend began when courts set aside land takeovers and hiked benefits to farmers in some cases.
{{/usCountry}}