The Hindu

Mangalore, Apr 14: The Government may invoke the special provisions to acquire lands for widening the national highway between Surathkal and B.C. Road, even as many land-owners are reluctant to part with their land holdings.

Some land-owners, who were asked to receive compensation and surrender their lands, have not come forward to do so, expecting an increase in the compensation amount.

The office of the Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO) of the Government here is likely to recommend to Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj to order for acquisition of lands under special provisions. “We will write to the Deputy Commissioner to this effect next week,” a senior official at the office of SLAO told The Hindu.

Notification

The Union Government, through the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has notified the lands for acquisition for the project. A few owners have surrendered their lands by collecting the compensation while some have not.

Sources in the NHAI said: “The Deputy Commissioner is empowered to take possession of lands under Section 3 (E) of The National Highways Act, 1956.” This provision in law had been intimated to all land owners, the sources said. As per the Act, any land could be acquired only after the Union Government deposited the prescribed compensation amount with the competent authority, in this case the State Government. According to sources, the compensation amount pertaining to land acquisition for widening of the national highway between Surathkal and B.C. Road had been kept ready on October 16, 2008.

The Act stipulates that the Collector “shall enforce the law related to surrender of the land to the competent authority or a person duly authorised by it.” Sources said that the private lands in 13 villages were notified for acquisition for widening of national highways 17, 13, and 48 into four-lanes. The total compensation amount to be given by the NHAI to land losers through the State Government had been fixed at Rs. 17.35 crore.

Of this, Rs. 10.18 crore had been disbursed to some land losers till April 13, 2009, and they had surrendered their land. The balance of Rs. 7.16 crore had to be distributed among the rest of the land losers, they said.

The NHAI had suggested to the office of SLAO to take possession of the lands under the provisions of Section 3(E) of the Act. “Once a land gets notified by the Government, it will become a government property, as per law,” the sources said.

The office of SLAO had issued reminders to owners of the lands which had been notified by the Government. But many had not come forward to receive the compensation for various reasons such as dispute over the property and expectation of higher value for their lands.

If the lands were not made available by the owners, it would be difficult to take up the the widening work at some places, the sources said.