Patna: Any Nandigram like incident will not occur in the state as the compensation package for acquiring farmland is the best in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed today.

Farmers are willing to part with their agricultural land on their own and no force is being used to acquire land as alleged by the RJD, Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of his janata durbar (open house).

Farmers in Nalanda and Bihta parted with 500 acres of land respectively for setting up the prestigious Nalanda Open University, a dream project of former president A P J Abdul Kalam and for an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Bihta on the outskirts of the state capital, he said.

Similarly, farmers were "more than willing" to provide land for the establishment of a medical college adjacent to Jalmandir, a famous Jain pilgrimage centre, he said.

Kumar alleged the RJD was vitiating the atmosphere by spreading a canard that fertile lands were being "forcefully" acquired in the garb of industrialisation.

Instead of blaming the state government for not providing land for railway expansion project, he said Lalu Prasad should concentrate on expediting and completing the projects which were already sanctioned by the erstwhile NDA government at the Centre.

He charged the Railways Minister with deliberately slowing down the completion of projects for which land had already been provided and cited the example of Railway Factory at Harnaut in Nalanda, doubling of Patna-Gaya rail line and construction of Patna-Sonepur railway overbridge.

Source : PTI