Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) will take up the entire 281 acres falling under several villages for its ambitious Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme near erstwhile NH-58. A committee was constituted by the authority after the Supreme Court directions in December, 2016.
After the affected farmers moved the apex court, it directed that the authority will be under no obligation to return the nearly 281 acres which was acquired under a 2004 notification for the housing scheme. However, the decision to keep the entire land will cost nearly Rs1,000 crore to the authority.
“The committee has decided that all the land (281 acre) will be taken up for the purpose of development. Against the previous Rs1,100 per square metre rates, we will pay up as per the new Act and farmers will get double rate of the prevailing circle rate as the land falls under the urban area,” said DP Singh, officer on special duty, GDA.
“The board has already authorised the vice chairperson to take a decision about arranging funds. We already have nearly Rs 250 crore made available to the district administration for award of compensation. For the rest, we may opt for soft loans from agencies like HUDCO. The compensation to farmers is to be paid within a year,” Singh said.
Under the 281 acres, the authority also found that nearly 30,000 square metre (nearly 8 acres) area of land had settlements or constructions. A committee of officials will now decide whether the land can be taken up or completely left out.
The Madhuban Bapudham scheme is one of the biggest in Ghaziabad, even bigger than the Indirapuram housing scheme. It is spread over more than 1,250 acres of several villages falling between erstwhile NH-58 and NH-24. The development of nearly 20,000 housing units is intended. The scheme is developed over land belonging to Sadarpur, Mainapur, Naglapath, Yaqoobpur and Morta.
Earlier in 2004, farmers had challenged the authority’s 2004 land acquisition process in which emergency clause was invoked. The aggrieved farmers moved the high court in 2008 but failed to find relief. They later moved the Supreme Court in a petition.
The court had stated, “even though the impugned acquisition has been found to be legally fragile, requiring the acquiring authority to return the land to the landowners, at this stage, would have the effect of jeopardising the housing and other projects which either have been completed or have reached completion.”
