NEFOMA

Tension gripped Shahberi village in the controversial Noida Extension area of Gautam Budh Nagar district again on Tuesday after the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) razed some houses and other structures being allegedly constructed illegally. Some farmers who claimed that the constructions were not illegal and alleged GNIDA officials colluded with the builder ‘mafia’ clashed with the police. Three persons sustained minor injuries.
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On 7 July, 2011, the Supreme Court had directed GNIDA to return the land acquired in the village for construction of residential colonies to farmers. Farmers alleged on Tuesday that GNIDA razed their houses and boundary walls of their lands, which violated the SC order. GNIDA officials, however, claimed that some farmers had been trying to build illegal residential complexes on their lands.

Around 11 AM, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GNIDA Akhilesh Singh reportedly led a team of officials of the anti-encroachment cell accompanied by a police team to raze the “illegal” constructions in Shahberi and some other areas of GNIDA.

Trouble started when the farmers claimed that the construction were not illegal and existed since or before 2008, when they had first approached the court against land acquisition. The police resorted to cane charge and fired a few rounds in the air to disperse the farmers. “When the police threatened to open fire if we opposed the razing of our houses and boundary walls, the farmers had to retreat from the spot,” said villager Chandresh Sharma.

The land where the alleged illegal constructions were razed belongs to five villagers—Arif Ali, Wasihat Ali, Rafat Ali, Mubassir Ali and Naushad Ali. Mubassir, who was present when the constructions were bulldozed, told TEHELKA, “There has been no construction work in the village in the past four years. And according to the SC order, the land now belongs to the farmers, not the authority (GNIDA).”

Mubassir also alleged that GNIDA officials and the police had colluded with builders to ensure that there were no constructions on the land so that some farmers could be lured to sell their land eventually. “They [GNIDA, the police and builders] want that the land barren so that the farmers sell it to the authority, which in turn wants to allot it to builders and construction companies,” he alleged.

Last year, the SC came down heavily on GNIDA for ‘colluding’ with construction companies to change the land-use pattern from industrial to residential to allot 1,56,903 hectare to private developers at prices much higher than paid to the farmers as compensation. Significantly, GNIDA had changed the land-use pattern even before the Uttar Pradesh government gave its nod. The court had strongly felt that the state government had indulged in a mala fide use of its powers for “urgent” land acquisition to benefit developers rather than serving any public purpose.

The Allahabad High Court, whose decision the SC upheld, had in its judgment termed the land acquisition “a colourable exercise of power” unsustainable under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

The SC too was livid with the manner the archaic Act was being used to oust poor farmers from their land, which was being used to build luxurious houses for the upper class. The SC had been especially irked with the transfer of land to developers in brazen violation of law. “The authorities have to act only in public interest. In the name of public interest, the Greater Noida Authority was serving private interest,” it had said.

On the builders’ arguments that they had no clue that the transfer of land was without prior clearance of the change of land use, the SC had said, “You were behind the curtain when Greater Noida transferred the land for residential purposes without approval.” It had also found that 60 per cent of the total land acquired for Greater Noida Industrial Township remained unutilised, which went against the takeover of agricultural land and its transfer for residential purposes.

The cases of neighbouring villages like Itehda, Haibatpur, Patwadi and Bisrakh are still pending before the SC. Some of the cases will come up for hearing before the court on 18 and 19 January.

GNIDA Chief Executive Officer Rama Raman could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.

Arpit Parashar is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.com.