Muzaffarpur district magistrate Santosh Kumar Mall goes through the petition of a farmer at his janata darbar. Picture by Prakash Kumar

Muzaffarpur, July 26: Farmers of 17 villages along National Highway 77 are yet to get compensation for their land acquired by the district administration for widening the road.

Around 1,400 farmers of Madhol, Turki, Daryapur Kafen, Sakri Saraiya, Thohba, Chandrahatti, Kamtol, Anant, Madhopur, Balia, Fatehpur, Rajla, Bishunpur Mangar, Dhodhilala, Chakbir, Fakuli and Dhodhi Anandkar under Kudhani block of the district have not got a penny for their lands, which were acquired more than a year ago.

The plots were taken to allow National Highways Authority of India widen NH 77 and convert it into a four-lane thoroughfare. This road connects Muzaffarpur with Patna.

The bone of contention between the farmers and the district administration veers around the categorisation of the land. While the cultivators claim that their plots should be categorised as commercial, the district authorities have listed them as agricultural plots and prescribed compensation on that basis.

The villagers had met chief minister Nitish Kumar and sought his intervention. Nitish referred the issue to the divisional commissioner of Tirhut, S.M. Raju, and district magistrate Santosh Kumar Mall to listen to the plea of the farmers and pay them suitable compensation.

Assistant collector Sudhir Kumar Singh, deputy collector (land reforms) Mohammad Athar and Kudhani block circle officer Ashok Kumar visited the villages, carried out physical verification and examined the nature of lands acquired for the roads. Sudhir had said that the lands had commercial value, as they are in the vicinity of NH 77.

Raju told The Telegraph: “The demand for compensation under commercial rate is genuine. It is high time it was given to the farmers.”

However, the district authorities have not paid the compensation.

As the stalemate continued over the past year, the farmers formed Bhudhari Kisan Sangarsh Morcha to give fillip to their agitation to seek commercial compensation for their lands.