Farmers claim Nano's land: The Gujarat high court has dismissed petitions filed by a group of farmers seeking compensation for the land the state government transferred to Tata Motors for the Nano project. The court fined each of the petitioners Rs 10,000 for filing "frivolous, speculative and vexatious" petitions.
After the Nano project moved from Singur in West Bengal, the Gujarat government offered it 445 hectares of land in Sanand taluka.
The farmers from Khode and Bol villages, in their petition filed in November 2008, claimed the land belonged to their forefathers who had leased it for 99 years to the then government to build shelters for the kankreji breed of cow affected by a drought in 1900. On expiry of the lease period, in 2002, they applied to the government for return of the land; but no one paid heed."In 2006, the Anand Agricultural University, which was apparently the last possessor of the land, informed that the government acquired the land in 1911," said Rajesh Savjani, lawyer for Khoda farmers. The farmers filed an application under RTI Act, but the government could not produce a copy of the land acquisition notification. The petitioners plan to approach the court again and request it to review its judgment.
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