HP: Villagers relent for survey work on township

Solan, Dec 2: The Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) will now be able to conduct a detailed survey for setting up of the proposed satellite township at Manjhol near Waknaghat in the Solan district.

The decision was taken after a meeting of the farmers of seven villages of Wakna and Chausha panchayats of Solan district with Solan Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar, HIMUDA Chief Executive Officer Y R Sharma and other district officials on Thursday.

The farmers, however, have categorically told the officials that they would not allow the authorities to acquire their cultivable land for constructing houses.

Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar told UNI that after several rounds of discussion, the villagers have assured of their cooperation in the survey work and added that residential houses would not be acquired.

The issue of proposed satellite township had come into limelight after the farmers sought Prime Minister's and President's intervention over the acquisition of 5,411 bighas of their lands under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act initiated by the HIMUDA a few months ago.

The move had been collectively opposed by the elected representatives, villagers and Mahila Mandal of Manjhol village.

A delegation of the villagers, led by the sitting legislator of the Solan assembly segment, Rajeev Bindal, had even met the state chief minister, urging him to stop the process of forcible acquisition, bound to hit 95 per cent of village population dependent solely on agriculture adding, the government should instead acquire 3,000 bighas of shamlat land for the purpose.

Chief Executive Officer of HIMUDA, Y R Sharma said the government was fully aware of the problems of the farmers and promised that, no farmer would become landless after the acquisition process, since the state government would allot them land in the outer limits of the proposed township.

UNI