GDA to recover Rs 349 crore from Indirapuram locals to pay farmers

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) board has approved the recovery of Rs 349 crore as enhanced land compensation for farmers from around 2 lakh Indirapuram allottees.Officials said a specially constituted committee would determine individual payment amounts for residents of high-rise apartments and plotted societies. The recovery process comes 36 years after the initial land acquisition.The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling of 2019 that mandated enhanced compensation to farmers of Makanpur village — from where GDA acquired 1,295 acres for the Indirapuram township. The land, initially acquired at Rs 90 per square yard between 1986 and 1989, now commands a compensation rate of Rs 297 per square yard.The legal battle began in 1991, when the affected farmers approached the district court seeking higher compensation. The court ruled in their favour in 2001, increasing the rate to Rs 160 per square yard.GDA followed it up with an appeal at the Allahabad high court. But it backfired when the court further enhanced the compensation to Rs 297 per square yard in 2017. The Authority then approached the SC, which upheld this decision in 2019.GDA officials highlighted their legal rights to recover the enhanced compensation, citing a clause in the original allotment agreement that makes allottees liable if compensation was enhanced in the future."A committee has been formed to determine the implementation process. Let's wait and see what it has to say," a GDA official said.Kapil Tyagi from Makanpur village, whose ancestral land was acquired for the Indirapuram township in 1989, backed the decision. "This was a long, protracted legal battle, and we won in every court. Indirapuram is now one of the city's most expensive areas. Yet, our land was taken for a pittance," he said.Resident associations, however, are opposing the move.Alok Kumar, a senior member of the Federation of AOAs, argued, "Freehold property owners have no such liability. The agreement between GDA and developers was bilateral. So, individual flat owners cannot be forced to pay enhanced compensation."Indirapuram, now a prime residential area with around 70 builder projects and numerous plotted societies, is set to face a significant financial impact from this decision. "The implementation mechanism and timeline for the recovery are yet to be determined by the newly formed committee. We have to wait and watch," an official said.