Project ‘unviable’, Haryana to return 300 acres to Sirsa farmers

“With the compensation amount, the farmers have already purchased land in far-flung areas or invested elsewhere. Now, the farmers won’t able to return the compensation along with interest,” said Yadav.

A senior official of HUDA told The Indian Express that the government felt that the project was not viable because of enhancement in compensation by court to the farmers. “The Punjab and Haryana High Court had given directions to make the payments to the farmers (by August 31). Then the government took a decision to denotify the land acquired to develop the sectors. However, a formal notification is yet to be issued,” said the official.

Under the provisions of the amended Act, the Haryana Cabinet on September 5 had framed a policy to prescribe the procedure for return of denotified “unutilised land”. Yadav has demanded that the amended Act be repealed, and termed it anti-farmer.

A HUDA official, however, claimed that the recovery of compensation along with interest has not yet been approved by the government in the case of Sirsa. “We have just proposed the recovery of compensation within 30 days,” said the official.