Gujarat find 'faults' in replies of farmers against bullet train project

In what could be termed as a 'rigorous scrutiny exercise', the state government on Monday filed a detailed affidavit before the high court pointing out loopholes and anomalies in the 849 replies filed by farmers against the proposed land acquisition for the ambitious bullet train project.

With the land acquisition for the project hitting a roadblock and representatives from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the funding agency, meeting the miffed farmers, the government seems desperate to prove the point that rules are not being flouted for acquiring land.

As per the government's reply, there are 191 affidavits filed by farmers who are not affected by the project, 5 affidavits are without documents, 29 affidavits do not have the land survey number, and 4 farmers have submitted incomplete affidavits, taking the total tally of alleged faulty affidavits to 229. In the remainder affidavits, there are 99 duplicate replies, whereby more than one reply has been filed by the same person. The state has claimed that there are only 521 affidavits filed by "actually affected persons".

Post the scrutiny, the government has cited several loopholes in the affidavits such as affidavits do not bear notary's stamp, the same person buying stamp papers in bulk and the same content having been printed on them, and three different persons filing the same description of land, among others. The scrutiny suggests that the affidavits filed by the petitioners "does not inspire confidence" and are placed on record only to "hype the whole issue", the affidavit provides.

Submissions of the state government

Through the affidavit filed by the revenue department's deputy secretary Keshavlal Upadhyay, the state has submitted thefollowingarguments:

• Majority of the landowners, whose plots are proposed to be acquired for the project, have offered their land by consent.
   
• The state government has applied indexation formula to the jantri rates of 2011 and thus, the farmers will be receiving at least 50-60 per cent more compensation than the actual compensation as prescribed under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
   
• The state has refuted the allegation of violation of JICA's guidelines on environmental and social consideration.
   
• The petitions filed by the farmers need to be rejected without a grant of any relief.

THE HEARING

• Following the submission of the affidavit, the high court’s division bench of Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav adjourned the hearing till December 12.

THE PROJECT

• As per project details, JICA is extending a soft loan of Rs 88,000 crore to the Indian government to execute the bullet train project. The project was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.