Narmada dam's tribal oustees warned: They would lose compensation claim, as they didn't accept Land Bank offer

Medha Patkar with PAFs at NVDA office, Indore

The Madhya Pradesh (MP) government has issued a controversial notice to hundreds of project affected families (PAFs) of Gujarat's Narmada dam, belonging to tens of villages of Badwani and Dhar districts of MP, stating that, since they haven’t accepted the land allocated to them by the Land Bank, their “eligibility for alternative agricultural land has exhausted.”
Issues by MP's rehabilitation officer of the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA), the notice, quoted by the anti-dam Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), states that if the PAFs do not collect compensation in lieu of the land “within 2-4 days” (i.e. by December 30, 2016), which is up to Rs 3 lakh, they would be deemed as rehabilitated, and the amount would be deposited with the Revenue Department.
According to NBA, PAFs were given the first installment of Rs 2.79 lakh years ago on rejecting the "poor quality" land they were offered years ago, while they have been offered “balance amount” of Rs 2.50 lakh now.
Questioning the compensation amount, asks NBA, “The cost of 5 acres irrigated land at present is estimated to be between Rs 50 lakh-2 crore. If land can be bought for Rs 2.50-3 lakh, then why doesn’t the authority buy it itself and then allocate it?”
NBA quotes an honorary member of the Grievances Redressal Authority (GRA), which has been hearing the plea against such little compensation, as saying, “Where will we provide the land from? It has become so expensive. If you can’t buy the land, then buy a tractor with that money. You won’t get land even in ten years.”
Wonders NBA, “Without hearing and without any order from GRA, how can NVDA or GRA take any decision? Does depositing the amount in revenue exchequer mean ensuring rehabilitation with land and/or livelihood? This move is an absolute violation of law the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award (NWDTA) as well as judgments of the High Court of MP and the Apex Court.”
NBA claims, PAFs were offered land that was “totally uncultivable, rocky, hilly or encroached since years”, hence they “rejected the same”. Worse, “in many cases, they were never informed of the land offer mentioned in the notices issued to hundreds during the last few days.”
Considering this fraudulent, Mayaram, son of Sukya, Village Pichhodi, Badwani district has filed a case against the rehabilitation officials for conspiring to violate the right to land of the tribals, “which is a crime under sections 3, 4, 5 of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989”, says NBA.
Sumanbai of Pichhodi village is all set to take up the matter similarly. Referring to a notice he received from a rehabilitation officer, she says, he received a notice stating that he had denied the land allocated to her by the land bank, hence “she must collect her second installment within the stipulated date.”
Adds Kalabai she never received the notice of a plot being allotted to her, yet recently received the notice of collecting her second installment as her eligibility for allocated land has exhausted due to her non-acceptance of the same.
Meanwhile, hundreds of PAFs, under NBA leader Medha Patkar, gathered in front of NVDA’s rehabilitation office in Indore on December 30, questioning the the rehabilitation officer, MP, seeking an explanation why were such “fraudulent, threatening notices” were being issued and under whose instructions.

“He admitted that it was done under the oral instructions from the Commissioner (NVDA)”, claims NBA.

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Search This Blog