Bihar govt not to tolerate damage to railway property: Nitish

Patna, Jan 17 (PTI) The Bihar government would nottolerate damage to railway property, Chief Minister NitishKumar said today on the torching of the engine and a fewbogies of Gomo-Barkakhana passenger train at Nabinagar inAurangabad district on Saturday.

The chief minister said the government was sympathetictowards the plight of farmers whose lands were being acquiredfor setting up the 1980 MW thermal power station and wouldconsider their demands favourably seeking compensation, butnone would be spared for damaging railway property.

Stating that he had sought full details from thedistrict administration about the protest, he said farmerswere being paid compensation according to government policyfor acquiring land for setting up industries and power plants.

Stating that legal action would be taken against thefarmers, he said, when the government announced that landwould be acquired for the power plant, a few people to hikeland prices purchased and sold it which was declared invalidby the district magistrate.

A few farmers had even moved the Patna High court tostop acquisition of their land but their plea was rejected, hetold reporters on the sidelines of his Janata Durbar said.

Kumar said the compensation was always decided on thefloor rate which varied from place to place and the governmentdecided to compensate farmers accordingly.

Kumar said as per information received by him thecontroversy over compensation was for ryati and governmentland. The government paid compensation for acquiring arableland of farmers and not for government land.

The government was abiding by this compensation policyfor acquiring land for setting up the thermal power plant onabout 2500 acres, he said.

"Power is a necessity for the state''s development andthose opposed to setting up the plant should decidefor themselves whether they wanted to live in darkness or anilluminated Bihar." PTI US PC