Bundelkhand farmers first to get a taste of new land policy

At a high-level meeting on Wednesday,Chief Secretary Anoop Mishra asked the district magistrates of the seven districts and officers of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Board to offer the benefits of the new policy to land owners.

In the past,the government acquired land for its projects at the circle rate. Under the new policy,the government will acquire land at a price to be decided with the mutual consent of the owners.

Alternatively,the farmers can opt for developed land equal to 16 per cent of the acquired land free of cost.

Besides,they will be entitled to benefits of the resettlement and rehabilitation policy,which include an annuity of Rs 23,000 per acre annually,with an increment of Rs 800 every year,or a lumpsum payment of Rs 2.76 lakh per acre.

An official said that land for the mandis was identified early this year,but the farmers in most of the areas had expressed their reluctance to part with their agricultural land at the existing rates. As a result,despite the sanction of about Rs 100 crore by the Centre,there had been no progress in setting up the mandis.

Each of the seven districts of Bundelkhand,namely Lalitpur,Mahoba,Jhansi,Chitrakoot,Banda,Jalaun and Hamirpur,have to establish one big mandi and about 15 to 25 small mandis depending on the area they will cater to. While the big mandis would come up in an area of about 100 acre each,the small ones are to be set up on 2 to 5 acres of land.

Under the new policy,which was announced in June 2,the UP government announced that it would not acquire land for any private sector project.

The developer will have to directly negotiate with land owners and the government will help them if owners of 80 per cent land agreed to the proposal.

For public infrastructure projects,the land would be acquired at a price to be fixed by mutual consent. In case the land is acquired for local bodies,development authorities,industrial development authorities,and housing development boards,the land owners have the option of taking 16 per cent developed land as compensation.

However,the benefits of the R and R policy will be available to land owners in all three cases.