Farmers at Tappal in Aligarh are regrouping themselves to launch an agitation in support of their demand of increase in the rate of compensation for land acquisition to construct a township along the Yamuna Expressway. These farmers are those whose land has not been acquired as yet. They are demanding rates equal to Noida for their land. On the other hand, farmer leaders alleged arm-twisting by the police and district...

In the first week of September, two things happened in western Uttar Pradesh. The first is that a township that was supposed to be constructed in Aligarh district as part of the Yamuna Expressway project was scrapped. The second was that the UP government announced a revised compensation scheme for the acquisition of land. And now, more than two months later, that bears fruit: the township is back on, and...

Even as railway minister Mamata Banerjee opposes government’s role in acquiring land for private companies , the contentious land acquisition (amendment) bill figures in the list of business for the winter session of Parliament beginning next week. The bill has been hanging fire in the wake of opposition from the Trinamool Congress leader, who recently skipped a meeting convened by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to evolve a consensus within the ruling...

Just three days after the Jaypee group resumed work on the Yamuna Expressway in Aligarh’s Tappal area in Uttar Pradesh after the last month’s agitation, the farmers again brought it to a halt on Tuesday evening, demanding compensation for the crops on the land acquired for the project, return of the land to farmers who were against acquisition, and withdrawal of the cases registered against them during the agitation. The immediate...

After a lull for over a month, farmers of Tappal area in Aligarh district came down on the streets to protest the arrest of their leader, Manvir Singh Teotiya, on Tuesday evening. Hundreds of farmers blocked the Aligarh-Delhi Highway in Tappal demanding immediate release of Teotiya who was arrested earlier in the day. Angry mob raised anti-government slogans and hurled expletives at the District Magistrate and the SSP who reached the...