NEW DELHI: At a time when the BJP government is hell-bent on passing the Land Acquisition Bill 2014 in Parliament, the residents of Malcha Village (now Raisina Hill) have dragged the Government of India to court for not receiving the compensation that was promised to them for taking over their ancestral land nearly 103 years ago.
The Delhi High Court, which is hearing the case, has issued notices to Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, the Land and Building Department and the Ministry of Urban Development, seeking an explanation why this deal should not be declared null and void. The court has asked the government to respond by March 23.
The petitioners, Sajjan Singh and Kadam Singh—originally from Malcha Village—now live in Sonepat, Haryana. They were evicted under the controversial Land Acquisition Act 1894, which is still used by the government to acquire land for infrastructure and business projects. Malcha Village was relocated by the British Government in 1911-12. The farmers claim their land was acquired by the then government to build the Presidential Estate (Rashtrapati Bhavan), Parliament House and government offices in Lutyens’ Delhi.
The petitioners argue that the land near Sardar Patel Marg in central Delhi, then known as Malcha village, still belongs to them as it was acquired by the government without paying any compensation. The petition contends that as per the new Land Acquisition Act of 2013, in effect from January 1, 2014, “If an award has been passed five years or earlier and compensation has not been taken or physical possession has not been taken, the land acquisition proceedings shall be deemed to have lapsed”.
According to the farmers, 17,000 acres of 150 villages in Delhi—including the land in Malcha—was acquired in 1911-12 for shifting the capital of India from Kolkata to New Delhi. “Chief Secretary of Punjab government, M.W. Fenton, had issued notification on December 21, 1911, for 150 villages in Delhi and payment record was prepared on December 16, 1912. The payment register shows that Shadi, the great grandfather of the petitioners (Sajjan Singh and others), was entitled to a compensation of `2,217, 10 anna and 11 paise, which was never paid. The government, meanwhile, has given this prime land to private parties and politicians,” the petition claims.
The petition filed through Supreme Court lawyer Surat Singh stated: “Those who received the compensation have put their signature against the amount shown, but those who did not take the compensation have not put their signatures. In the payment record of December 1912, it will be seen that there is no thumb signature in front of Shadi’s land despite the fact that (an) amount `2,217, 10 anna and 11 paise was determined as share of his compensation.”
Talking to The Sunday Standard, Surat Singh said, “In 1912 when the government was acquiring the land, some families did not take the meager amount and left for Sonipat. However, the government did not take care to give them their dues.”
The prime land in the heart of New Delhi is today worth crores of rupees. The Land Acquisition Bill 2014 will be taken up for discussion along with amendments in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The amended Bill’s main objective is fair compensation, thorough resettlement and rehabilitation of those affected, adequate safeguards for their well-being and complete transparency in the process of land acquisition.
A century-old tale
The petitioners claim that their land in central Delhi was acquired by the government 103 years ago without any compensation, for building Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House and government offices in Lutyens’ Delhi.