A farmer took possession of movable assets, including computers and printers, of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam at its Gandhinagar office in Gujarat in a bid to recover his long pending dues as ordered by a civil court.
He took possession of at least nine CPUs, an equal number of monitors, seven printers and 17 chairs belonging to the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) on Saturday evening.
The farmer named Damodar Patel hailing from the Abhol village of Vadodara district had given his land to the state government for the construction of the Narmada canal over 34 years ago, but has yet to receive the full compensation, his advocate said.
The state government in 1990 owed Rs 225 per square yard as compensation to Patel. When the government failed to pay the compensation, Patel took the former before the Additional Civil Sessions Judge of Vadodara.
The court increased the compensation amount from Rs 225 to Rs 1,725 for irrigated land and Rs 1,300 for non-irrigated land, said Patel.
Even after several court orders ruling in favour of Patel, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam failed to pay him compensation.
The farmer’s advocate R.D. Parmar told the media that the court had directed them to take possession of movable properties of the SSNNL in early July.
On August 5, the court passed another order directing the farmer to take possession of the movable properties. Therefore, Parmar along with Patel took computers, chairs from the SSNNL Gandhinagar office on Saturday.
SSNNL has to pay Rs 11 lakh with interest as compensation to the farmer.
SSNNL Managing Director J.P. Gupta was, however, not available for a comment.
