Title - Villagers block rail track for 3 hrs Say they were neither given jobs nor duly compensated for their

Anantnag:
Residents of two villages today blocked the Railway track in the Wathall area of Qazigund for several hours.The protesters alleged that they had not been duly compensated by the authorities for the land acquired from them by the Northern Railways.The residents of Wathall and Humu villages in the area came out in large numbers and blocked the Railway track, sources said.The protesters alleged that the authorities had promised them jobs, besides monetary compensation for the land they had provided to the Railways.“We gave up our only source of income, our agricultural land,” said a protester, adding: “Now the Railways are fully functional they are shying away from fulfilling the promises made to us.”The villagers said there were huge discrepancies in the allotment of compensation as well as the jobs.“Some blue-eyed residents, who did not deserve a job as a part of the compensation got one but the deserving ones have been waiting for years now,” they alleged.The protesters were later pacified by officials of the District Revenue Department. “The officials have sought a time period of three days to solve this long pending issue,” they said.The protesters, including women and children, threatened to intensify their protest if their demands were not accepted.

Railway officials, meanwhile, maintained that they had nothing to do with the agitation as they had already paid the full amount of the compensation to the Revenue department concerned.

“Halting a train is a mark of protest, otherwise Railways has no role to play in this,” said Chief Controller of the Railways Vikramjeet Singh. “As far as providing jobs to these people is concerned that too has been done on the directions of the Revenue department,” he said.

He said his department had provided jobs to the people who had been recommended by the department concerned.

Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR), Anantnag, Ghulam Rasool Wani said he had sought a week's time from the protesters.

"There has been some delay in the process, but that has been due to the scrutiny of the files," said the ACR.