In order to appease farmers who gave up land for the industrial development in the Yamuna Expressway area, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) has approved the leaseback of abadi land (land meant for residential purposes) to around 3,000 farmers near the Noida international greenfield airport project in Jewar, along the Yamuna Expressway.
It will start executing the leaseback process by next month without any delay, said officials.
Farmers have been demanding leaseback of abadi land since long. The Yeida, since 2008, started acquiring agricultural land from the farmers from 17 villages, including Bhatta, Dhanauri, Rustampur, Afzalpur, Jaganpur, Mirzapur and Atta Gujran, among others.
The Yeida, along with the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration, had acquired farmers’ agricultural land, including the small plots that farmers were using for residential purposes. The administration calls this land abadi as the farmers were keeping their animals on these plots. Since the land acquisition, farmers have been protesting and writing to the Yeida, demanding that we return the abadi land to them. They also refused to accept the monetary compensation for the same.
The authority did not return the abadi land on the grounds that their planned development will get affected as many abadi plots were allotted to group housing, industrial sectors and other proposed project. But now the authority, in its 78th board meeting held on September 13, decided to leaseback these plots to farmers and if any particular plot falls within a proposed project area, then the farmer will get the same size plot at a different location for residential purposes.
“We have approved 110 cases of leaseback and shifting of abadi land, benefiting around 3,000 farmers because we want farmers to remain happy and support us in future development. Now the authority will start the paperwork so that farmers get abadi plots back and also execute the plot title in their name,” said Arun Vir Singh chief executive officer of the Yeida.
The authority aims to complete the leaseback process to around 3,000 farmers in the next four to five months thereby ending the years long battle that the authority and the farmers faced over the abadi land.
The Yeida will now execute the leaseback as per the guidelines of the authority after verifying the details of each farmer. The farmers are also happy because after the upcoming airport,which is likely to become operational next year, has pushed up rates of abadi plots.
“We welcome the decision taken by the authority even if it has come after a delay of so many years. We hope that the authority will not delay the process of transferring the land back to farmers on papers so that we can use the same for our family,” said Rambir Singh, a farmer from Afzalpur.
