Dadupur Nalvi irrigation scheme Hry’s decision to return over 1,000 acres suffers setback after HC order

Propaganda: We will challenge high court order striking down state legislation: Haryana CM.

After the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down a provision to not notify tracts of land acquired for public purposes, the initiative taken six years ago by the Haryana government to return 1,019 acres, acquired for the Dadupur irrigation scheme, to the owners -Nalvi, it has come to an end. a harvester

De-notification of land acquired by the state government for public purposes means that the land will be returned to its original owners after recovering the compensation amount paid to them for the acquisition.

The “ill-advised” measure, as the opposition called it, tested under the BJP government led by Manohar Lal Khattar, saw its end after the high court annulled section 101-A of the Law in December 2024. to the Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013, a clause inserted by state amendment in 2018 with retrospective effect from January 1, 2014, the date on which the Central Act, 2013 came into force. Section 101-A empowered the state government to cancel the notification of land due to the fact that the public purpose for the which was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 became unviable or non-essential.

Since the process to return the land to its original owners remained unfinished, the Irrigation and Water Resources department had on August 13, 2024 extended the time till December 31, 2024 for the return of the land. When asked about the status of the denotification exercise, Irrigation and Water Resources Chief Engineer Rakesh Chauhan said some landowners had submitted applications and some had returned the compensation amount. “We’ll have to check it out, though,” he said.

Arbitrary modified provision: HC

“We are of the firm opinion that article 101-A can be repealed, suffering from the vice of manifest arbitrariness. “We are of the considered view that the action of the state government in withdrawing the notification was dehors the policy at the highest level even though the same was in force and therefore even the action itself is liable to be revoked.” . said the HC bench comprising Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan.

Haryana Additional Advocate General Ankur Mittal, who argued the case, said the state government will attack the HC judgment in the Supreme Court. “We will challenge the high court’s order striking down state legislation,” Mittal said.

What was the irrigation plan?

The Dadupur-Nalvi irrigation scheme was conceptualized in the 1980s to irrigate areas in Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Ambala districts by releasing around 590 cusecs of water annually from the Yamuna river to a lined canal leading from Dadupur. It was to recharge the water table and to provide canal irrigation to the three districts.

In September 2017, the Khattar government decided to de-notify the land and return it to the owners, citing the viability of the plan and the prospects of paying farmers heavy compensation for the acquired land. The irrigation and water resources department issued a formal notification in 2018.

“The state cannot defend its case and the high court asks them to deposit $50 lakhs per acre was the main reason why the project was sought to be abandoned in the absence of such provision. At that time, on March 20, 2017, the principal secretary of the irrigation department had opined that there was no such provision to abandon the proceedings as the 1894 Act was in force,” the court case reads.

Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Randeep Surjewala condemned the BJP government’s decision to abandon the irrigation scheme and return land to farmers. Following the 2023 floods in the state, former chief minister Hooda had said that the Dadupur-Nalvi irrigation canal was the biggest water recharge project in northern Haryana and would have also worked to protect Yamunanagar from floods, Ambala and Kurukshetra. “However, the BJP government canceled the project notification as soon as it came to power. By doing this, the government committed an injustice by snatching away the project that turned out to be the lifeline of the area during the disaster,” he said.