CHENNAI : The Negotiation Committee set up by Madras High Court is now seeking the advice of an additional advocate after land owners rejected the compensation offered for land required to complete the Mass Rapid Transit System. The land owners who are fighting a legal battle in Madras High Court over compensation offered by the State government, have sought compensation of Rs 12,375 per square foot against Rs 8,422 per square foot offered by the Negotiation Committee.
It is learnt that the petitioners wanted the compensation based on the highest market value during the year 2014 and applying emergency clause under section 40 (3) of the new Land Acquisition Act. Sources said the Negotiation committee had proposed that the compensation be paid to the land owners by obtaining the sales statistics from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018.
As such compensation of `8,422 was proposed which was 225 per cent more than the market value of the earlier promised compensation of `5,000. The figure of enhanced compensation has been arrived at, taking into account the sales statistics in the 400 metre-radius of the nearest vicinity area.Now with the rejection of the proposed compensation, the entire MRTS project is now back to square one wherein 6,550 square metre of rail alignment for MRTS Phase II extension project is waiting to be completed.
On October 4, 2018, the Madras High Court constituted a negotiation committee comprising of Member Secretary CMDA, Chief Engineer Construction, Southern Railways and the Chennai District Collector and directed to submit a report within two months.Now the committee has sought the advice of the advocate general as it has to submit the report before the HC.