Farmers in Chandrapur getting peanuts for lands: BJP

Chandrapur, Jul 16: Hansraj Ahir, BJP MP from the area, on Friday alleged that Chandrapur district tops the list when it comes to land acquisition in the country, however farmers were left high and dry with meagre compensations.

"Thousands of hectares of land belonging to farmers from over 250 villages has been acquired by the government but their problems thereafter have not been addressed even after decades," he said at a press conference here.

Senior BJP leader, Rajnath Singh, was scheduled to interact with the project-affected farmers in the districts of Chandrapur and Yavatmal on Saturday, he said.

"Rahul Gandhi is creating sensation by harping on the issue of land acquisition in a couple of villages by the Uttar Pradesh government, while the Congress government in Maharashtra has acquired thousands of hectares of land," said Ahir.

Over 11,000 hectares of land was acquired for Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station here but a meagre compensation of Rs 1,500 per acre was paid, he alleged. No jobs were given to farmers'' kin as promised, he said.

Elsewhere too fertile lands were acquired for Ordnance Factory at Bhadrawati, coal mines of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), cement industry, power projects, etc, he said. The lands acquired were worth lakhs of rupees per hectare in the market, he said.

PTI