Within a week of issuing a notification declaring its intention to acquire land in Gautam Budh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and, in turn, sparking off a row over acquisition of agricultural land, the Railway Ministry on Wednesday went on the defensive and said there will be no “forceful” acquisition of land for railway projects. The Rail Bhavan said that the ministry had decided to “comprehensively review Railways’ land acquisition policy to ensure that forceful acquisition of land, including agriculture land, is completely avoided”.

“The focus of this review will be to facilitate transaction/ purchase/ acquisition of land directly from the land owner with complete transparency,” the ministry stated, adding that all existing land acquisition cases will be critically examined in the light of the review within a month’s time.

Prompted by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s open opposition to forcible acquisition of agricultural land, the ministry’s latest stance is essentially targeted at stemming the tide of opposition that was building up over the proposed land acquisition in Gautam Budh Nagar.

It was being alleged that many chunks of land, which had been notified for acquisition, were agricultural lands.

Exercising powers under Clause (1) of the Section 20A of the Railways Act, 1989, the ministry had on September 11 issued a notification to acquire land in 16 villages in the district for “execution, maintenance, management and operation” of the Special Railway Project — the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor. The 16 villages include Chersi, Mayacha, Devata, Kherli Hafizpur, Jamalpur, Raghunathpur in Sadar Taluk and Rithauri, Ajaybpur, Kaimrala Chakrasenpur, Ghodi Bachcheda, Chamrawali Ramgarh, Hazratpur, Chamrawali Boraki, Thapkheda, Palla and Pali in Dadri Taluk.

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