Jammu, May 28: Over 200 kanals of land was today handed over to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for its usage after it was acquired in a village in Samba.
The locals at village Chak Manga Gujjran in Samba had earlier held a peaceful protest and claimed that the land was allotted to them in 1952 by the government and they cultivated it for decades.
Even as the villagers were up in arms against the retrieval of land, the officials in the revenue department told Greater Kashmir that the land was acquired for the NHAI and its possession was handed over to them today.
Sunil Kumar, a local youth, told the media that they were informed by the authorities that the land had been handed over to the NHAI. An elderly woman, Kanta Devi said that they belong to a poor family and have no other source of earning as they depended upon the agricultural land which has now been taken over by the NHAI.
“The authorities should give us an alternative land as all the people here are poor and have no source of earning,” Devi said.