Duringhis bief visit to lucknow on Tuesday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi submitted a memorandum to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) demanding reassessment of land acquisition for national highway in his Parliamentary constituency of Amethi.
During his two-hour stay in the state capital, Gandhi directly went to the NHAI office in Gomti Nagar from the airport and was closetted with Regional General Manager Rajeev Agarwal for about 40 minutes along with some farmers of Jagdishpur area of Amethi and UP Congress chief Raj Babbar, Congress legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar lallu and others.
The Congress leaders also raised other acquisation issues with NHAI officials including that of Amedkarnagar, where Babbar sat on a dharna recently and stopped the construction of highway demanding appropriate compensation for affected families. The leaders alleged that land was being acquired without any notices or proper compensation to farmers.
Talking to the media at Amausi airport before flyingback to Delhi, Gandhi said that he had came to lucknow for farmers’ issue and asked the NHAI officials to consider the demands of the farmers. “I always fought for the farmers and labourers and will continue to do so in future,” he said.
The Congress vice-president said that it was unfortunate that the NHAI was not following norms and razing down houses of farmers without giving notices and compensation.
“ I have asked the NHAI officials to follow the norms and first give notices and adequate compensation before demolishing their properties,” Gandhi added.
“During our UPA regime, we had built a network of national highways across Uttar Pradesh. Around six national highways were developed in Amethi, Rae Bareli and Sultanpur region. But in Amethi, this has come to light that while people’s land were being acquired, proper procedures were not being followed. So, we raised the issue before the NHAI and were assured of a sincere relook,” Gandhi said.
Asserting that he had been fighting for farmer’s cause for a very long time, Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to scrap land Acquisition Bill, in which Congress deeply believes in.
Regional General Manager (NHAI) Rajeev Agarwal told the media after his meeting with Gandhi that they have received a memorandum on acquisition of land for broadening of NH-56 in Jagdishpur area of Amethi and announced to visit the spot himself.
“We have promised to re-assess the project in the next three days and try to solve the problem so that less farmers lose their lands,” Agarwal said.
Presently, around 800 families are likely to be displaced due to the broadening of NH-56 from two to four-lane highway connecting lucknow to Varanasi.
Earlier, Gandhi was given a rousing welcome at Chaudhary Charan Singh international airport on his arrival from Delhi by a service flight around 10.30 am.
Senior Congress leaders including Raj Babbar, Ajay Kumar `lallu’, MlC Deepak Singh welcomed the Congress leader and later accompanied him to the NHAI office. After t he visit to NHAI office, Gandi left fopr Delhi around 12:30 pm.
This was Gandi’s first visit to lucknow after the humiliating defeat in the Assembly polls in February- March. A section of the state Congress unit was annoyed over the hush-hush visit of Gandhi to lucknow, moreso because he did not meet local leaders or take stock of party functioning.