Allahabad:
A two judge bench of the Allahabad High Court has scrapped the acquisition of 170 hectares of land in the Gulistanpur village of Greater Noida near the national capital.
The order was passed by a division bench comprising Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Kashi Nath Pandey on a petition filed by landowners and farmers challenging the government notification for land acquisiton. The notification issued on September 5, 2007 under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act deprived the aggrieved persons of a chance to file their objections on the ground that the matter was urgent.
The Greater Noida authority finally acquired the land for "Planned industrial Development" in February 2008. The 656 farmers whose land the UP Government took over were promised Rs 132 crore as compensation.
The acquisition was cancelled after the Greater Noida authority failed to prove that any industrial work had begun on the land.
This was the third time that the High Court has set aside land acquisition in Greater Noida where the farmers are up in arms against UP government's land acquisition demanding adequate compensation for their land and had clashed with police earlier this month. On May 12 and May 15, the same bench had quashed acquisition of more than 170 hectares in Gautam Budh Nagar district.
(with PTI Inputs)