Sarita Devi, Ram Achal, Subedar, Lodar Gaur and more than 25 other villagers in Azamgarh have lost their land to the Purvanchal Expressway and received no compensation, allegedly because the government has discovered that plots it had allotted to needy families years ago were forest land. A Highway to Landlessness and Poverty in Azamgarh - The Wire
Asked why no compensation was given to farmers holding sarkari patta, an official from Phulpur tehsil who requested anonymity cited the Supreme Court’s Hinch Lal Tiwari v. Kamala Devi judgment. In this judgment, the court had ruled that material resources of the community, such as forests, tanks, ponds, hillocks and mountains, are nature’s bounty that should be protected and could not be allotted or commercialised. Since the land distributed had been found to be forest land, the allocation was illegal and therefore not eligible for compensation, the official said.
by Raj Shekhar
04/05/2025