A day after the Uttar Pradesh Government decided to withdraw 189.25 hectares of land it had given for the proposed rail coach factory at Lalganj in Rae Bareli, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday ordered status quo in the matter.The Bench consisting of Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice S Hasnain passed the order on a petition filed by the Railway Ministry and a PIL filed by two villagers — Dinesh Chandra Mishra of Ahar village and Avindra Pandey of Balemau village.The Bench, however, refused to stay the state government’s order of October 11, by which it had taken back the land from the Railways. Next hearing is fixed for October 22.Interestingly, the opposing litigants had different takes on the issue. While counsel of the villagers, Mohammad Arif Khan claimed that the status quo meant the land would remain in the possession of the Railways, chief standing counsel of the state government, Devendra Upadhyay claimed the status quo meant that the land would remain with the Gram Sabha.During the hearing, the court asked the state government to present facts on the basis of which it had cancelled the land allocation. The state government gave an undertaking that it will not allocate the land to anyone and there will be no construction on the land. Following which, the court ordered the status quo. Railways adamant, goes ahead with project Though the UP government has taken back the land it had given for the proposed rail coach factory at Rae Bareli, the Railways are going ahead with acquisition of the additional land they had identified for the project.On Monday, the Railways carried out a ten-page advertisement in local newspapers, inviting applications for acquiring 543 hectares of land. A Northern Railway official said the only land they had received was the one given by the UP government but the project required more land, which belonged to local farmers. “After conducting surveys and consulting the farmers, we are planning to pay compensation at around Rs 4.65 lakh per acre and employment to at least one member of nearly 1,600 families in the area,” said the officer. He said in spite of the UP government’s action, they were determined to go ahead with the project. If the UP government did not agree, they would acquire the land from the villagers, he said.
