Ullahawas to decide today on protest

Residents of Ullahawas village in Gurgaon are meeting in a panchayat tomorrow to decide on a plan of action to protest what they allege was the unfair acquisition.

Residents of Ullahawas village in Gurgaon are meeting in a panchayat tomorrow to decide on a plan of action to protest what they allege was the unfair acquisition of their land for a non-profit trust set up by the Gandhi family.

Residents of Ullahawas allege that the district administration forced a former sarpanch to sign away the villages rights to the land for a paltry amount.

The village panchayat leased the land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust set up by Sonia Gandhi,Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra to address areas of concern that were closest to Rajiv Gandhis heart for a period of 33 years. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked for all records related to the acquisition of the land in an ongoing case.

We are getting paid a very minimal lease amount. The government did not follow the established procedure of acquisition for the land that they acquired for the trust. Even a temple which had been there for the last 500 years was not spared. What will we do with the trust on our land? said Gajraj Singh,a villager.

Village sarpanch Ram Singh claimed that those who had struck their own deals earlier had managed to get up to Rs 5 crore per acre. However,once the government began the process of taking over the land,prices dropped by more than half,and subsequently even lower.

Now we have no land. It has all gone to the trust. We know we will not be benefited by it, Singh said.

Deputy Commissioner P C Meena said five acres had been leased to the trust in August 2009 for 33 years at 5 per cent of the then collector rate. The village panchayat has been getting the rent of Rs 15 lakh for the past two years and there is nothing wrong in it, Meena said.

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Officials said that a total Rs 30 lakh had already been deposited in the panchayats account,and the money was being utilised for development projects.

It was non-agricultural land,and there was no prior income from that land. The entire panchayat had taken the resolution collectively in 2009, Meena said.

Real estate companies and brokers in the area said several big projects were coming up in the area on land bought directly from villagers by builders. The builders approached the villagers and took the land themselves. Some of the big projects coming up in the area are Pioneer Park,BPTP and others, said Sanjay Sharma,MD,Qubrex,a real estate broking and consulting firm.