Demanding raiyats’ unused lands back from Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday opposed the State Government’s Master Plan over the land which technically belongs to the original stakeholders.
Talking to media persons at party office on Monday, Supreme Court Advocate Jose Verghese said that as per the land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013, earlier acquisition done under the law of 1894 will be invalid as the Government will have to re-acquire the land if it failed to use it for the original purpose for which it had been acquired.
“Today also, I mentioned as many as 10 cases related to the raiyats of HEC which were lying pending for the last one and a half years at the Jharkhand High Court without being taken up since the date of filing. The Court after hearing the case patiently has given next date of September 26,” said Verghese. The advocate also appealed raiyats to launch extensive public protest against the government’s decision to implement master plan on the land which actually does not belong to it so that the matter could be put strongly before the court during the next hearing. Activist Vasvi Kido said that the land of HEC was acquired in 60s when the foundation for the same was laid here and several thousand acres of land were acquired for the purpose. But more than 4000-5000 acres of land remained surplus over which no construction was done by the HEC.
Ideally, as per the land Acquisition law of 1894, the land which could not be used for the purpose it had been acquired, should be returned to the original raiyats.
Name of the villages which will get affected from the master plan includes – Kute, Ani, Tiril, labe, Murmej, Harsel, Sithio, Jagannathpur, Bhusu, Barmer and Kalyanpur.