CONNECTING ROAD Value of politicians, bureaucrats’ land will increase by several crores, claim petitioners Saurabh Malik Chandigarh, September 24 The acquisition of land in Dhanas and Dadu Majra to connect Dakshin Marg with “PR-4” in Punjab has come under the judicial scanner with a petition alleging that the value of land belonging to politicians and bureaucrats there would increase by several crores. The petitioners, Jaspal Singh and others, contended that the Dhanas-Mullanpur-Siswan road connecting Punjab to Dakashin Marg in Chandigarh was just 2 km from the proposed connecting road. Appearing before the Bench of Justice Daya Chaudhary and Justice Sudhir Mittal, petitioner’s counsel Charanpal Singh Bagri also contended that numerous residential and commercial projects were being set up by “famous private companies and builders” in Punjab abutting the PR-4 road. He said the “appropriate government” was trying to project the acquisition of land for the construction of the 200 ft connectivity road to serve public purpose just to deprive the landowners of their legal rights enshrined under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Bagri added the intention was to especially deny 20 per cent reservation of land to landowners in case of urbanisation. “Actually, it will serve the ulterior motives of builders, developers and politicians, who have already started their development projects as such amounting to urbanisation,” he submitted. Bagri said the UT Administrator, just prior to acquisition of land, also notified a “policy for land acquisition through negotiation”, which was in contravention of the mandatory procedure and provisions of the 2013 Act. Bagri also told the court that this was the first-of-its-kind acquisition process initiated without updating the revenue record or the record of rights of the land concerned. He added the same had not been updated for the past so many decades. Bagri also sought directions for considering the rate of land in question on a par with the rate of commercial and residential area, which was part and parcel of the same village. Elaborating, he submitted that half the area was a part of Milk Colony in Dhanas and the remaining part was the subject matter of acquisition, where the collector rate was over Rs 19 crore per acre. Taking up the matter, the Bench referred the matter to another Bench hearing petitions filed in public interest.

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