The Times of India, June 17 2015, Chhindwara: Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar who reached Chhindwara on Tuesday to attend a hearing of an old case of alleged unlawful assembly, raised demand for giving back the land taken over for Adani Group’s power plant and Pench diversion project coming up in this MP district.

Patkar, who has been opposing both the projects, was arrested on November 4, 2012, at this town when the Pench irrigation project was being inaugurated. She had remained in custody for three days along with other activists. Addressing a group of around 200 farmers here, Patkar along with other activists Dr Sunilam and Aradhna Bhargav exhorted the audience to take back the possession of their holdings and start cultivating the land.

She argued that the land, orignally acquired for Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board (MPEB) plant in 1986 and later handed over to Adani Group, should now go back to the original owners, according to the land acquisition law of 2013. “The section 24(2) of the law says ‘if physical possession is not taken over for the project after five years of granting the compensation award, the land goes back to the original owner’. In this case, the award was passed in 1986 and farmers continued to till the land until 2010 when Adani entered the scene,” she said.

Web: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Oustees-should-take-back-land-given-to-Adani-Group-Patkar/articleshow/47697154.cms