Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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The Supreme Court has ordered the West Bengal government to respond to a case of 27 farmers, who are fighting to retain their land against the State’s claim of having acquired it over six decades ago. Srikanta Charan Kanp, the lead petitioner in the case, told an apex court Bench of Justices A.M. Sapre and Indu Malhotra that his family has been cultivating the land for generations. They got the shock of their life when local authorities summoned them in 2015 and told them that the 35 acres they were farming at Guria village in Purba Medinipur district was not theirs but belonged to the State Public Works Department (PWD). The authorities claimed there was an acquisition proceeding under the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act, 1948, about 67 years ago, when Kanp and his co-petitioners were mere children. The land was turned over to the government for a “brick field”. It was then, years later, vested with the PWD. The farmers argued that the handing over of the land to the PWD was, “absolutely illegal” and sought that it be set aside.
