The administration announced the compensation today for 104 acres of land, out of the total 272 acres to be acquired by the Administration.

After the announcement, farmers assembled at the Sector 17 plaza and burnt an effigy of UT Administrator General S F Rodrigues (Retd). Talking to Newsline, the protestors said the administration is full of “sharks” who want to arbitrarily grab the land of innocent farmers.

One of the protestors, Sanjeev Sethi, said: “The administration published an advertisement in the newspapers saying that the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007 is not applicable in this issue. This is totally incorrect.”

The farmers added that the Chandigarh Administration has already acquired about 400 acres for RGCTP Phase-I and II, out of which it had utilised merely 20 per cent of the land during the last four years.

“The acquisition of the additional 272 acres of land for Phase-III illustrates the malafide intentions of certain vested interests in the Administration,” said H S Johl, one of the protesting farmers.