Nagapattinam: Tension prevailed for a while as a group of land owners who parted with their land for the Rs 6,431 crore Villupuram-Toothukudi four-lane National highway on the ECR, laid siege to the office of the special tahsildar, land acquisition, at Nagapattinam on Monday, protesting against the authorities who allegedly “cheated them” in fixing the price for their land.
According to the agitators, their lands at Nagapattinam, Puthur, Manchakkollai were acquired during 2016 and the land cost was transferred to their respective bank accounts a couple of days back, calculated at the rate of just Rs 40 per sq feet instead of Rs 4,000 per sq feet fixed by the government, by the officials of the NHAI. Thus what they got was just one per cent of the assured value by NHAI (National Highways Authority of India).
The shocked agitators were also protesting against the special tahsildar’s rude behavior and his evasive reply when they questioned him about it. They posed that instead of paying compensation at the rate of Rs 4,000 per sq feet, why the NHAI had transferred the land cost calculated on the basis of a mere Rs 40 per sq feet of land.
The land owners urged the Nagapattinam district administration to ensure that they be given the original rate assured for their lands, or else they will be compelled to intensify their agitation against NHAI in the coming days.
