Title - Land row brakes on loco factory

Train engines may never chug out of the proposed locomotive factory at Marhaurrah with the district administration recommending cancellation of land acquisition for the plant.The then railway minister, Lalu Prasad, had laid the foundation of the Rs 2500-crore factory at the village, 20km north of Saran district headquarters and 70km northwest of Patna, in 2008.Around 1,200 acres were supposed to be acquired for the factory, the deadline for which was 2011. Sources said around 350 acres had been obtained.The railways were supposed to send a proposal, detailing the compensation to be provided to the state government. A source said the proposal submitted by the railways recently had no mention of compensation for the farmers. Following this, district land acquisition officer Anil Kumar Chaudhury, in his report submitted to the state government on August 3, recommended cancellation of the proposed land acquisition.Local RJD leaders, however, have reacted adversely to the recommendation.Marhaurrah RJD MLA Jitendra Rai told The Telegraph: “This is a move by the state government to sabotage this ambitious project of Lalu Prasad. The government has been treating the project in a step-motherly manner from the very beginning. The RJD will not allow this. We will launch an agitation against the recommendation of the administration.”

Quoting the RJD chief, he added: “Chief minister Nitish Kumar has failed to establish even a needle factory in the state. Lalu Prasad had, however, translated his assurances into reality.” Another RJD leader, Ram Pravesh Rai, said: “Nitish is spending crores on NRIs and industrialists to establish factories in the state, but nothing concrete has been done as of yet.”

Chandreshwar Rai, convener, Diesel Rail Engine Sangharsha Samiti — an organisation of the residents of the area lobbying for the project — said: “There should be no politics in development work.”

District magistrate Vinay Kumar said: “Our report has nothing about the cancellation of the proposed land acquisition. We have reported the lackadaisical approach of some railways officials to the state government. If the railways want to acquire land, it must pay proper compensation to the landowners. But that is not being done.”

Railways sources said the project would die if the land acquisition process had to be started afresh. Chief engineer Arvind Kumar said: “We have Rs 25 crore to acquire the required land. Around Rs 8 crore has been spent already. There is a lot of land to be acquired.”