Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (BJP), union minister for civil aviation, responded to the questions by providing details of the amount of land acquired by Government for building airports in last three years. As per the data provided, a total of 1944.4364 acres of land had been acquired for building airports in the last three years.

The minister also detailed the funds allocated and spent on land acquisition for building airports in last three years. As provided in the reply, the Rajya Sabha was apprised that out of the total land of 71.11 acres provided by UT of Andaman & Nicobar for Port Blair Airport, Rs. 12.47 crores have been paid for 1.55 acres of land to the UT Administration for installation of glide path. In Bagdogra, out of the total airport land of 130 acres, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) paid Rs. 23.06 crores as compensation to the existing tea estates for acquiring 98.72 acres of land provided by the State Government of West Bengal. For Pakyong Airport, out of the total land area of 210.14 acres, AAI paid a compensation of Rs.10.18 crores for an area of 7.39 acres, as a compensation for acquisition of private land for construction of the reinforced earth retaining walls. At Hindon Airport, out of the total land of 10.39 acres made available by State Government of Uttar Pradesh, AAI has paid Rs.39.69 crores for a land of 5.44 acres.

It is crucial to note here that the data provided by the ministries fail to provide the amount of money that has been paid by them for the whole land. As can be deduced, the compensation paid is only for a part of the whole required land. Since the data does not provide the total funds allocated, the total amount spend on land acquisition and compensation cannot be determined. By providing us with only the amount paid for 4 airports, namely Port Balir, Bagdogra, Pakyong and Hindon airport, the full amount paid for acquisition of 1955.4364 acres cannot be pointed. Thus, it can only deciphered that they the union has paid 85.4 crores for acquiring 113.1 acres of land due to various reasons, which are installation of glide path, compensation to the existing tea estates and compensation for acquisition of private land for construction of the Reinforced Earth Retaining walls.

Notably, in the case of Kohlapur, Maharashtra, for which forest land of 27 acres was acquired by AAI, no details have been provided in the answer which specify the funds paid.

The table provided in the reply to the question is as follows:

*Land Acquired from Defence (IAF).
** On lease basis on nominal rate. # Forest Land handed over to AAI.

The questions put forth by Sen concerning the displacement of the people due to acquiring their land and the compensation provided to the, the union minister dodged the question by saying that the concerned State Government/Union Territory (UT) Administration for development/expansion of airports owned by the AAI is responsible for the same. Hiding behind the above justification, the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed the Parliament that it did not maintain any data in this regard either for AAI Airports or Private Airports.

The complete answer can be viewed here:

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On Tuesday, March 10, Congress’s blue-eyed boy Jyotiraditya Scindia appeared to have changed colours abruptly on the occasion of Holi. Shortly after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Scindia a four time Member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh’s Guna constituency, posted a picture of his letter of resignation from India’s grand old party on Twitter sending political circles and the media into a tizzy.

pic.twitter.com/DWSKdYO0jG

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) March 10, 2020

But it wasn’t just Scindia who exited the Congress. 22 MLAs said to be loyal to him also resigned from the state government, sending the Kamal Nath led establishment into damage control mode to check the hemorrhage. The 230 member MP assembly had 114 Congress MLAs as opposed to 107 of the BJP. Now, the Congress has lost its majority and has sent its MLAs into hiding to prevent them from being wooed by the other side.

Amidst this, a video was posted by Dr Anand Rai, who had previously exposed the Vyapam scam, showing alleged ‘horse-trading’ by the BJP. Dr Rai claims the video is of a ‘sting operation’ where BJP leader Narottam Mishra is offering Rs 100 crores and a ministerial birth to MLAs in exchange for toppling the Kamal Nath government.

Madhyapradesh #horsetrading Exposed जनमत को खरीदने की जुगत में भाजपा @CMMadhyaPradesh @OfficeOfKNath @digvijaya_28 @VTankha @Profdilipmandal @TribalArmy @BhimArmyChief @kanhaiyakumar @jarariya91 @ReallySwara @ABPNews @ndtv @PrannoyRoyNDTV @PTI_News @ANI @News18MP @vijaymandge pic.twitter.com/sS4YodtMJm

— Dr.ANAND RAI (@anandrai177) March 4, 2020

SabrangIndia has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video. Meanwhile, Rai told PTI, “This video was shot at a room in the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan located in Chanakyapuri area of Delhi which was recorded with an spy camera during my meeting with BJP leader Narottam Mishra last year.” This suggests that the alleged conspiracy to overthrow the Congress government in MP had been afoot for a while. However, state BJP spokesperson Umesh Sharma has dismissed the video as “fake and misleading.”

The timing of Scindia’s exit and Rai’s video is also curious given the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in the state. It is noteworthy that Scindia who hails from the erstwhile royal family in the state and has often played a key role in securing victory for the Congress Party was rather publicly snubbed by the party when Chief Ministership of the state was handed over to Kamal Nath and not Scindia after the 2018 legislative assembly elections. Then in 2019, Scindia lost from Guna for the first time to BJP’s KP Yadav in the Lok Sabha elections. Moreover, hawk eyed media watchers had also noticed how Scindia had changed his Twitter bio to just “Public servant, cricket enthusiast” instead of one containing any information on allegiance to or position in the Congress party last year.

Word is that Scindia will join the BJP officially at 12:30 on March 11. Meanwhile, India Today reports that, “Congress has booked 42 of the 52 rooms at Buena Vista Resort in Jaipur for its 92 MLAs. The other rooms may also likely to be taken over by the Congress party in a while. This is the same hotel where Maharashtra Congress MLAs were lodged during the crisis over government formation in the state last year.” 

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संसद के बजट सत्र में राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुखर्जी के दिए अभिभाषण पर धन्यवाद प्रस्ताव पर चर्चा में भाग लेते हुए कांग्रेस सांसद ज्योतिरादित्य सिंधिया ने नोटबंदी का उल्लेख करते हुए कहा कि टीवी पर कोल्ड ड्रिंक का एक विज्ञापन दिखाई देता है जिसमें ऐड कर रहा हीरो कहता है- ‘आज कुछ तूफानी करते हैं।’ उन्होंने कहा कि प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने भी इसी ऐड से प्रेरित होकर नोटबंदी का फैसला किया है।

आपको बता दें कि इससे पहले विख्‍यात अमेरिकी अर्थशास्‍त्री स्‍टीव एच हैंके ने भी पीएम मोदी के नोटबंदी के फैसले की कड़ी आलोचना की थी। हैंके ने कहा कि नोटबंदी ‘लूजर्स’ (हारने वालों) के लिए है और प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी को भी अंदाजा नहीं है कि देश किस दिशा में आगे बढ़ रहा है। मेरीलैंड की जॉन्‍स हॉपकिंस यूनिवर्सिटी में पढ़ाने वाले हैंके ने ट्वीट कर कहा, ”नोटबंदी हारने वालों के लिए है और यह शुरुआत से ही गलत तरीके से लागू किया गया। कोई नहीं, यहां तक कि मोदी को भी नहीं पता है कि भारत किस दिशा में जा रहा है।” 
 
वाशिंगटन के केटो इंस्‍टीट्यूट में ट्रबल्‍ड करंसी प्रोजेक्‍ट के निदेशक और वरिष्‍ठ फेलो, हैंके ने पहले कहा था कि ”भारत में मोदी की नोटबंदी को अपनाने के लिए जरूरी बुनियादी ढांचा नहीं है… उन्‍हें यह बात पता होनी चाहिए थी।”

Courtesy: National Dastak
 

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