NHAI will refer Delhi – Meerut Expressway land acquisition case to UP Govt

Representative Image

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has put the onus of the Rs 16,000 crore Delhi – Meerut Expressway scam on Uttar Pradesh government, where several officials were accused of illegally obtaining land from farmers at lower price and selling it to the state government at higher price.

An official from NHAI said that it’s a case for “state government” to look after.

“We have acquired only that part of land which came under our alignment,” said the official. “Apart from that, we don’t know what the officials involved have done… It’s a matter of state government”.

The matter came to light when farmers from Nahal, Dasna and Kushaliya lodged a complaint with the state government stating that officials from Ghaziabad magistrate had acquired land from them, after the project was notified, in the name of their relatives and sold it to the government.

Also read: Phase I of Delhi-Meerut Expressway to be operational by December ’17

Sale and purchase of land, for public project, is illegal after the notification. The Delhi – Meerut expressway was notified in 2012.

It has been alleged that the officials, whose names have not been disclosed, purchased land from farmers at the circle rate between Rs 1,700 and Rs 1,800 per square meter and sold it to the state government at Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 per square meter.

Meerut divisional magistrate, Prabhat Kumar, had ordered probe into the case which found that “as many as 450 deals happened after the notification, of which 20 could be fraudulent”.

“Land was acquired only for phase IV (of the Expressway)… Land acquisition is the responsibility of the state,” said the official.

He, however, said that NHAI will “refer the case to state government if there is something wrong” and if “documents of NHAI have been tampered”.

“So far, there is nothing in our knowledge,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation of the 14 lane, 74 kilometer long Expressway in December 2015 as a part of Centre’s initiate to decongest Delhi.