Skip to main content

How Andhra govt modified, abandoned Nizam's 'good' policy to rehabilitate displaced

Palla Trinadha Rao*
The present paradigm of viewing development is mainly infrastructure building which goes against the poor, more particularly tribals and dalits in the country. According to estimates based on studies of development-induced displacement 1947 to 2010, researchers have arrived at an estimate of more than 65 million people who have been displaced or project affected people, and lost their sustenance without being relocated.
Such people deprived of their livelihood in the name of national development belong mainly to the subaltern classes, around 40% of them tribal who are 8.6% of the country’s population and 20% are dalits.
The findings of earlier studies have been further reinforced by a recent study on the displacement and marginalisation in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana (1951-2010) undertaken by a study team comprises of Walter Fernandes, Nafisa Goga D’Souza, Arundhuti Roy Chaudhury, Mohammed Asif, M Gopinath Reddy and the author of this article.
The study was anchored by the North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) and Laya, a tribal resource centre which shows that more than five million people were displaced or affected due to the projects undertaken by successive governments in AP and Telangana during the period 1951-2010. .
The study was done in two stages in the formerly undivided AP, 1951-1995 (first stage) in the late 1990s and 1996-2010 (second stage) in the present decade. The study of more than 80% of the projects during the first stage reveals that about 24. 21 lakh acres of land was taken over by the government and deprived the livelihood of the total displaced/project affected population 30.75,631.
Of the total 15,28,441 Displaced Population (DPs) and 15,38,844 are Project Affected Population (PAPs), while the status of the remaining 11,346 (0.37%) could not be identified. The study team could get information of only around 60% of the projects which used the land of 15.12 lakh acres and displaced/affected were 18,78,685.
Of them 829833 (44.17%) of them DPs and 931663 (49.59%) PAPs. The status of the remaining 1,17,189 (6.24%) could not be identified. That brings one to 49,44,290 DP-PAPs but one speaks of more than five millions because data could not be got for more than 30% of land as well as DP-PAPs.
However, only 28.82% of the DPs were resettled during the first stage (1951-1995) and no information could be got on rehabilitation during the second stage though a new policy on Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) was promulgated in 2005. Much of the rehabilitation was during the massive dams and industries built in the 1950s.
Earlier, it was done under the good policy promulgated by the Nizam while building the Nizam Sagar dam in the 1920s. The Nizam decreed that no cash compensation was to be given to the peasants lest they drift, not being fully familiar with the monetary economy. Rehabilitation of its 13,489 displaced families was to be an integral part of the project. They were to be resettled in model villages in the command area with facilities like land, houses and drinking water provided according to an approved plan and with due regard to sanitation.
As displacement increased slowly, the policy came to be modified and eventually abandoned. One possible reason for weak rehabilitation may be the type of DP-PAPs. The tribes, who are a little over 6% of the population of AP-Telangana, are 21.25% of the DP-PAPs. Their caste-tribe is known during the first stage, and of these, scheduled castes (SCs) are 25.27%. But the caste-tribe of 11.51% could not be identified.
During the second stage (1996-2010) the caste tribe of 28.14% could not be identified. Of those whose caste-tribe is known, 15.42% are tribal and 13.6% are SC. The second stage is the age of globalisation during which much more land than during the first stage was acquired.
It is no surprise to know that the total acquired during the first stage of 45 years comes to 52,200 acres per year but during the 15 years of liberalisation it is an average of 100,800 acres per year. The biggest land users during both the stages are water resource projects.
During the second stage to them are to be added mining and transport. For example, during 45 years of the first stage only 1.29,016.46 acres used for mining could be identified. During the 15 years of the second stage it was 336862.25 acres, and it does not include the high amount of illegal mining. AP-Telangana has the biggest number of cases of illegal mining in the country.
The failure to rehabilitate DPs and the poor state of data on people may be indicative of the attitude towards development. It leaves one with the impression that the GDP, infrastructure development and economic growth are accorded priority and people are ignored.
One found in the data signs of people’s impoverishment, social and environmental degradation because of alienation of the livelihood of the poor for the benefit of another class. Similarly, one found many signs of environmental degradation caused by projects though no technical study was done on this component. That is where one needs to search for alternatives to people displacing and resource intensive projects.
One also needs to search for new forms of rehabilitation. Does India in general and AP and Telangana in particular search for people-oriented alternatives? Does one need to keep destroying the environment for the development of a few and then cry hoarse about climate change?
---
One of the authors of "Displacement & Marginalisation in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana (1951-2010)", released on August 29, 2019 by tribal leader Kaki Madhu in Vijayawada

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.