The process of selling the land in Andla for the Defence Industrial Corridor is accelerated. Land deals of about 10 crores done in a year. Now land allotment to investors will be starting from 15th September. Investors will be able to transfer the land on their firm’s name after the payment of fees. This work boosted up soon after the review meeting chaired by CM Yogi. Principal Secretary Avnish Awasthi has directed the district administration to allot the land by 15th September.

A total of 53 land deeds were signed in the past year in and around Andla. As per the circle rate, the total land price of these deeds comes around 2.75 crores. Apart from this, the government has made a deal of 7.55 hectares of land from 79 farmers for about 6.5 crores (twice the circle rate). In this way, the purchase of land worth about 10 crores has been done until now. Registrar of Khair, Dheeraj Singh said that 19 land deeds have been done in Andla since September 2019 which consists of 8 deeds till March 2020 and 11 deeds after that. In one year, about 3.49-hectare land was purchased from farmers.

In the same period, 8 deeds were signed in the neighboring village of Haybatpur for the total 1.312-hectare land. Another 9 deeds were signed in village tehra for the total land of 1.281 hectares. 17 land deeds were done for the Defense Corridor Project, which constitutes the same land of 7.55 hectares which was taken from the farmers with their consent. For these lands, double the circle rate has been paid, which is near to 6.5 crore rupees.

Land allocation to investors started:

Aligarh DM Chandra Bhushan Singh told that on the directives of the government, the allocation of land has been started to the investors in Andla's proposed Defense Corridor Project. The process of allocation will be completed by 15th September. The forest department has been instructed to cut down the trees.

Received a revenue of 10.75 crores

If we look at the government data on the purchase of land from 1st April 2019 to 31st August, most of the agricultural land deals were done in Khair tehsil. In the district, 1145 land deeds of the maximum agricultural land were taking place in Khair generated a revenue of 6.55 crore to the Stamp and Registration Department. Another revenue of 22.87 lakh is generated from the deeds of residential lands and 3.85 crores from the 32 deeds of existing buildings. During this period the purchase of industrial land was nil.

The ball of forest land acquisition controversy in Andla again in the court of government.

In the case of a complaint on the Chief Minister’s portal to encroach the forest land for the Defense Corridor in Andla, the ball is back from the Forest Department in the court of government.

The Forest Department has admitted that this land belongs to the forest area and it is a habitat of wild animals, but citing the policy of the government, they said that the land acquiring process executed under the same policy. Ranjan Rana, manager of the Environment and Tourism Development Committee, had filed a complaint on the Chief Minister's Public Hearing Portal, calling it an inappropriate attempt to destroy the forest and make it a defense corridor in which the response has been given by the Forest Department. They admitted that the forest as a green area, the presence of wildlife is also accepted.

Ranjan Rana has said that the district administration is taking arbitrary action by following policies that will ruin common biodiversity to create defense corridor. It seems that the laws like National Forest Policy and Wildlife Conservation Act 1972 are useless for them. He sought a response from the administration about other green areas in Aligarh besides Gursikaran forest and Andla forest. He further asked from the administration that wild animals who have inhabited in the forest for decades, will now reside where and have they made any substitute plan for this wildlife?

He further added that the protection of the environment and pure climate is the fundamental right of the people, which cannot be sacrificed on the name of development in any way. The district administration can acquire land by doubling-tripling the compensation but cannot take action to destroy the developed green area.

He also said that now there is a possibility of getting justice for the people only by the movement and through the court, for which we are already prepared, and we are also ready to fight with the administration to protect the Andla forest.