The farmers also submitted affidavits in the Gujarat High Court opposing the project.
As many as 1,000 farmers affected by Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project will approach the Supreme Court with a plea to stay the project, their lawyer said on Tuesday. The farmers also submitted affidavits in the Gujarat High Court opposing the project.
"These 1,000 affected farmers will be approaching the Supreme Court with a prayer to stay the project. We will mention the matter before the apex court on Wednesday for an urgent hearing," the farmers' lawyer Anand Yagnik told reporters.
A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice VM Pancholi is hearing five petitions challenging the land acquisition process for the Rs 1.10 lakh crore project. In addition to these petitions 1,000 farmers submitted affidavits in the HC expressing opposition to the project.
The farmers said in the affidavit that they did not want their land to be acquired, and also told the court that neither their consent was taken, nor any consultations done while initiating the acquisition.
They claimed that the land acquisition proceedings were in violation of guidelines of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which was funding the project. They also alleged that the state government diluted the Land Acquisition Act 2013.
During the hearing, the central government sought time to file a reply.
Yagnik told reporters that the high court was unable to hear the matter as the Centre has been consistently seeking time to submit the reply since the last five weeks. Incidentally, Supreme Court had on August 10 directed the HC to expeditiously hear matters of project affected farmers.
In their petitions filed in HC in July, the five farmers said that since the project passes through more than one state, i.e. Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Centre was the appropriate government to acquire land, and not the state government. The petitioners also said that market value of the land was not revised, as required under Section 26 of Land Acquisition Act.
Around 1,400 hectare land needs to be acquired for the project, of which 1,120 hectare is privately owned. It will affect about 6,000 land owners.
The bullet train project, which is projected to become operational in 2023, will run at a speed to 32-350 kmph, and reduce the distance between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to about two hours.
(with agency inputs)
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