Expressway protests spread,work at a halt

Agitated farmers torched a power generator along with other machinery at one of the construction sites,while offices and equipment of Jaypee group,the developer for the Expressway,were attacked at other places.

The agitation may hit construction of the 165-km-long Yamuna Expressway,which will connect Greater Noida to Agra,and which is just months away from its targeted completion date of October 2011.

Accusing opposition parties of provoking the farmers to serve their own interests,the Uttar Pradesh government claimed it wasn’t land acquisition issues that led to yesterday’s clash. Land had been acquired in the village way back in July 2010,it said.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow,Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said UP is the only state that acquires farmers’ land under a “Karar Niyamwali (a legal agreement)”. Land was acquired as part of a “normal development process” undertaken by the Greater Noida Authority in the area,on the lines of its master plan,he said. “Land can be used for construction of roads or even school building.”

According to Singh,the Greater Noida Authority had started the process for land acquisition in the twin villages Bhatta and Parsaul in March 2009.