Bihar Govt. will not tolerate damage to railway property, says Nitish Kumar

Patna, Jan 17 (ANI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said his government is concerned over the plight of farmers who were displaced due to land acquisition, but would not tolerate any damage to Railway property.

"The government is sympathetic towards the plight of farmers whose lands were being acquired for setting up the 1980 MW thermal power station and would consider their demands favourably seeking compensation, but none would be spared for damaging railway property," said Kumar on the sidelines of his Janata Durbar here.

Expressing his concern over the issue, Kumar said he has asked for details from the district administration about the protest.

"Certain people purchased land to sell it later at higher rates after learning that the government had announced land acquisition for the power plant," said Kumar, and warned that legal action would be taken against the farmers.

"A few farmers had even moved the Patna High Court to stop acquisition of their land but their plea was rejected. The compensation was always decided on the floor rate, which varied from place to place, and the government decided to compensate farmers accordingly," he added.

The Chief Minister further said as per the information received by him, the controversy over compensation was for 'ryati' (agricultural land) and government land.

"The government was abiding by this compensation policy for acquiring land for setting up the thermal power plant on about 2,500 acres. Power is a necessity for the state's development and those opposed to setting up the plant should decide for themselves whether they wanted to live in darkness or an illuminated Bihar," said Kumar.

Earlier on Saturday, the agitating farmers set afire the engine of a passenger train in Bihar's Aurangabad District in protest against the setting up of a power plant in the area.

The farmers raised slogans against what they called an unfair land acquisition policy by the Bihar Government and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

The protesting farmers also set on fire the engine of the Mughalsarai-Barkakana passenger train. (ANI)