Kendrapada:Thousands of villagers Friday blocked roads in Kendrapada district in Orissa demanding higher compensations for their farm land which will be used to build a railway line.

The residents of Kendrapada district blocked national highway No-5(A) and the Cuttack-Chandabali road at Duhuria Chhack located on the outskirts of Kendrapada town, some 150 km from Bhubaneshwar.

The villagers lifted the blockade after police and administration intervened, a police officer posted in the area said.

The villagers blocked the roads demanding higher compensation for their land which will be used to build an 82-km-long railway line from Haridaspur to Paradeep covering Kendrapada, Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur districts.

The railway requires at least 1,780 acres of land for the proposed project Of which 1,300 acres is owned by farmers.

While the administration has acquired about half of the required land on paper, residents say they will not give physical possession unless they get "the right price".

“The compensation amount for acquisition of government land was Rs.1.8 million to Rs.2.8 million per acre whereas the authority granted meagre amount of Rs.50,000 per acre," Bhikari Mohanty, president of the Haridaspur-Paradeep railway land displaced Krusaka Sangram Samiti, told IANS.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the roads due to the road-blockade.

 

 

Source : IANS