Danishwar Hameed
For the last two years, Faisal Dar*, a resident of Amanoo village of Kulgam district of south Kashmir is unable to grow anything on his land. Owned by his father, Faisal used to feed his family on the patch of land that has now been acquired by the central Government for the National Highway 444 project.
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Angry villagers have halted the work on the highway for a ‘delay’ over the payments for their land which was acquired by the state.
National Highway 444′, a 73-km four-lane road supposed to start from central Kashmir’s Budgam district and culminate with the ‘National Highway 44’ near Qazigund passes through the paddy fields, apple orchards in the districts of Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama.
The Government of India (GoI) announced a Rs 80,000 crore package for the rehabilitation process in the wake of the devastating 2014 floods, of which Rs 42,611 crore were allocated for roads and highway projects.
Eight “National Highways” with a vast network of roads and improved road connectivity in Jammu and Kashmir were approved by the GoI.
One of the eight highways was NH-444, a 73-km, four-lane road that was meant to begin in the Budgam district of central Kashmir and end at ‘National Highway 44’ close to Qazigund.
For this large-scale project, the GoI set aside Rs 1800 crore.
Seven years after the project was initiated, the work on it continues on a tortoise pace, which has created panic among the local residents. “The Government has acquired land from over 300 farmers in Kulgam district alone and all of this is fertile land. People grow their crops including apples, rice on these fields,” Fasial told The Kashmiriyat.
Angry villagers protest
The residents of several Kulgam villages have staged multiple protests to demand compensation from the Government, however, the payment is being delayed constantly by authorities, the locals alleged.
“When the Government acquired our land they said that the payment would be released within two days, but unfortunately enough it has been over two years, our payments are not being released,” an elderly protestor told The Kashmiriyat. He said that for the past seventy years, the patches of the land taken by the Government in Chawalgam Kulgam were considered the most fertile in the region.
This is all loot, we will not allow bulldozers to run over our lands now till they give us the compensation. “They damaged trees, destroyed our lands promising that the compensation will be released in months time, however, it has been over two years, they still seamlessly make promises, one after the other,” he said.
As the bulldozers and construction workers continue to be stopped by the angry protestors, several officials reached the site in Chawalgam, however, they failed to persuade the locals to allow the construction work.
A Revenue official speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that the project has been launched four days ago. He claimed that the official process goes through several rounds. “We have prepared a list of the people who have lost their land, what is the amount for the compensation for the land acquired by the Government and how many trees have been felled. The process has been completed and the list has been forwarded to the centre,” he said.
He claimed that the payment is not made through banking system anymore. “There is a online website (bhoomi rashi portal) where the names of those whose lands have been acquired need to uploaded and then they undergo verification. Once the verification is done, the funds are transferred into the bank accounts,” he said.
Fasial Dar, the local resident said that the villagers who have lost their land are solely dependent on the land. “We used to feed our families for the whole year on the annual crop we produced, but now all of that is gone. If it was upto us we do not need compensation, we need our land back,” Faisal said.
*- The name has been changed on request.