“The compensation amount fixation committee is yet to fix the price of land. We will request the government to provide good compensation to the owners,”
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BARA, Feb 7: People residing in land plots to be acquired for the construction of Second International Airport in Bara have refused cash compensation, demanding that the government resettle them instead.
Organizing a press meet on Sunday, locals of Karaiya-8, Katghat have demanded that the government provide them land in suitable location in exchange of their land plots to be acquired for the project. “The decision to acquire land without making any arrangement for us is unacceptable,” Bikau Chaudhary, president of a struggle committee formed by the locals, said. “More than 1,000 people live in around 110 bigaha in Katghat village,” he added.
The locals made public their demand after a team lead by Chief District Officer (CDO) of Bara, Bijaya Narayan Manandhar, requested them to vacate their land and house by taking the compensation amount.
“Farmers need land to feed their family. If the government cannot provide us land, it should pay us Rs 5 million per kattha,” Chaudhary demanded.
Bara CDO Manandhar said that the government has always been providing cash as compensation. “The compensation amount fixation committee is yet to fix the price of land. We will request the government to provide good compensation to the owners,” he said.
Around 12,000 bigaha of land will be required to build the airport. “There are lots of unregistered land plots in the area allocated for the airport project,” added Chaudhary.
Project officials say there has not been any progress in construction works in the past six months.
Upon completion, the airport can handle 60 million passengers annually.
