The tale of train: Farmer now owns the Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi
A farmer, Sampuran Singh who had moved to court seeking compensation for his land acquired by Northern Railways became the owner of the Swarna Shatabdi train. The court had ordered the Railways to compensate the farmer and its failure to do so led to the judge attaching the train to the farmer's name. The court also ordered attachment of station master's office.
Farmer to get due compensation for land acquisition by Railways
The Northern Railways had acquired Sampuran Singh's land in 2007 order to build the Ludhiana-Chandigarh railway line. As compensation, the court had ordered Rs. 25 Lakh per acre to the farmer.
Court increases compensation for farmer's acquired land
The farmer filed a claim petition in 2012. In 2015, the court increased the compensation from Rs. 25 Lakh per acre to Rs. 50 Lakh per acre. Sampuran Singh who was entitled to Rs 1.47 crore post this decree received only Rs. 42 Lakh from the railways. The court ordered that Northern Railways compensate him according to the new decree.
New Delhi Amritsar Swarna Shatabdi Express
The 12029/30 New Delhi Amritsar Swarna Shatabdi Express covers the distance of 448 kilometres, running as "train number 12029 from New Delhi to Amritsar Junction and as train number 12030 in the reverse direction serving the states of Delhi, Haryana & Punjab."
Did the farmer take the train home? Sadly, no!
At the train's arrival, Sampuran Singh and his advocate Rakesh Gandhi handed the train driver with the court's orders. However, Sampuran Singh let the section engineer get the train released and "it's the court's property at the moment". Divisional Railway Manager Anuj Prakash said the matter will be looked into by the law ministry now.
