Court stays Manesar land acquisition,hearing in Feb

Gurgaon: The Punjab and Haryana high court has put a stay on the acquisition of 688 acres of land in Manesar.It has also restrained the Haryana government and five private developers from changing the nature of the land no change in land use and from creating any third party rights,i.e.no sale or purchase of the land, till further order.
The division bench of Justices M M Kumar and Rajiv Narain Raini passed the order in December while hearing to a petition filed by 117 land-owners from Manesar and its adjoining villages.They had alleged that the government had issued notifications to acquire the land for alleged public purpose, compelling the petitioners to sell the valuable and fertile land at a throwaway price to private developers.
We had taken the matter to court as people went for distress selling of land fearing that the cash compensation by the government would be much less than what private developers were offering to them.We have alleged that the government notifications worked as threats to people, said Om Prakash, one of the petitioners. The case will come up for hearing again on February 17.
TOI, in October 2007, had first reported how the Haryana government botched up its own plan to acquire 912 acres of land around Manesar to create residential need for huge labour force working in the Manesar industrial township.In a sudden turnaround,the government had withdrawn two notifications for acquiring about 680 acres of land in August 2007,just a day before the last date for completing all formalities.
This was for the first time in the history of Haryana,final land acquisition notifications were withdrawn at the eleventh hour.The state government had issued Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act notification for 912 acres for setting up residential,recreational and other public utilities in the Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township, Manesar, during the tenure of the Om Prakash Chautala government.
In August 2005,after the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government came to power, Section 6 (declaration to take the land for a public purpose) was notified. According to the norms, the process of acquisition should have started on August 25,2007. But the government withdrew all notifications on August 24. TOI had highlighted how the industrial development body had deposited Rs 50 crore with the district revenue officer-cum-land acquisition collector for the acquisition.
The villagers have said that after the notifications were issued,the government had allowed the land use change for about 224 acres.

LAND ROW: HOW IT UNFOLDED

24 Aug 04 | Haryana govt issues notification (under Sec 4) to acquire 912 acres for setting up residential,recreational and public utilities in Manesar 

25 Aug 05 |  Subsequent notification (Sec 6) issued 

2 Aug 07 |  Final notification for compensation disbursal (Section 9) issued 

24 Aug 07 |  Land acquisition was scheduled to take off 

22 Aug 07 |  Govt abruptly withdraws acquisition notification 

Dec 11 | Villagers move court alleging nexus between government and builder 

Dec 11 | Punjab and Haryana high court orders status quo and stops land sale and transfer Source>>>