Villagers threaten mass suicide over nonpayment of compensation for land

  • | Saturday | 21st July, 2018

“476 families whose lands were taken for the project have got no compensation. “Under the project around six acres of my land was acquired by the company but I did not get a single rupee of compensation. “We had given Rs 10 lakh each to around 40 families but then the claims began to grow and we discontinued. Under the project, lands of 16 villages from Tehri district and nine from Pauri were taken by the Alaknanda Hydro Power Company, a GVK Group company.A spokesperson from GVK, when contacted about the issue, refuted the villagers’ claims. Then some of them approached the Uttarakhand high court and the matter is sub-judice now,” the spokesperson said.The villagers however refuted these claims and said the cheques they were carrying were for their land and homes.

Dehradun: Several villagers whose lands had been acquired for a hydroelectric power project in Srinagar in Garhwal have alleged that they have not been compensated for their land more than five years after the project was completed and have threatened mass suicide if they are not given due compensation.Around 500 villagers have been sitting in protest in Dehradun since the past two months to get the compensation that was promised to them by the private company commissioned for the project. “476 families whose lands were taken for the project have got no compensation. Cheques were issued to them in the year 2013 and the company asked them to wait for some months so that payment can be cleared but it’s been more than five years and not even one family has got a single penny,” said Daulat Kunwar, founder of the Uttarakhand Sanvaidhanik Adhikar Sanrakshak Manch which is facilitating the protests.The group has also written a letter to CM Trivendra Singh Rawat asking him to allow these farmers to commit suicide else they will shut the power house on August 1. The farmers alleged that they have been reduced to begging with their families because of the financial crunch they have been forced to face.Work on the hydroelectric power project on Alaknanda river in Srinagar started in the year 2006. Under the project, lands of 16 villages from Tehri district and nine from Pauri were taken by the Alaknanda Hydro Power Company, a GVK Group company.A spokesperson from GVK, when contacted about the issue, refuted the villagers’ claims. “The necessary compensation has been paid to all the concerned families and hence it is totally incorrect to make any allegations in this respect.” He added that the compensation that the villagers are claiming is not for the land that was acquired under the project but an additional sum that was provided by the company for the development of villages in the area. “We had given Rs 10 lakh each to around 40 families but then the claims began to grow and we discontinued. Then some of them approached the Uttarakhand high court and the matter is sub-judice now,” the spokesperson said.The villagers however refuted these claims and said the cheques they were carrying were for their land and homes. “Under the project around six acres of my land was acquired by the company but I did not get a single rupee of compensation. They issued a cheque to me worth around Rs 15 lakh in 2013 but I was asked to wait for some time before encashing the cheque since they did not have funds. In the meantime, six months lapsed and the cheques became worthless,” said Suchha Singh, a farmer from Dhari village.When contacted, Tehri DM Sonika (who uses only her first name) said that the agreement to transfer land was signed directly between the villagers and the private company and the administration is not involved in the payment of compensation. She added that “since the villagers have been complaining of being cheated, I have written a letter to the state government regarding the matter and got a list of villagers who have been given compensation.” “We are organising a meeting next week between the villagers and officials of the GVK Group to address the issue,” she said.

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