"Namaste" he said and politely asked us to sit down. A thin sheet of sweat covered his limbs presumably from the laborious toil at the fields. The house was simple and clean, had earthen walls, a thatched roof and a wooden frame to support the structure. A moment's silence follows the exchange of pleasantries. On probing about the government schemes for rehabilitation and resettlement, he slowly related his tale. The government notified them that his village and its surrounding lands will be submerged in the reservoir waters of Indrasagar dam 4 years back. A few months after which a group of officers came to survey their region estimating the costs of the houses and their farmlands(section six).They claim that the estimation of cost for their farms was done by using outdated cost data, thus guaranteeing inadequate funds to the prospectively displaced people. The compensation for the lands was to be given in one of the two ways:

(i)Land for Land: The land offered in most cases was found to be hilly, infested with stones, not irrigated and so incapable of bearing harvest. In certain regions, the land being offered was found to be already being occupied by a third person. Also another issue was of an individual being granted land in two different areas, making it physically impossible to utilise both the lands and hence, rendering a part of it useless.

(ii)Monetary Compensation for land: The rate as per which money has been reimbursed is on an average 7-8 years old. Such is the situation that even the full promised amount does not reach the coffers of the poor rustics. The helpless villagers fall prey to corruption also, thus losing a part of their rightfully owned money.

A daily wage labourer had another facet to add to the picture. Since these labourers have no land to claim compensation for, they were promised 5 acre land or Rs. 38,000 compensation per working member of the family. But the scene actually is not so simple. It is claimed by the villagers that the officials have comfortably stated alive, walking and talking persons non-existent and thus kept away the rehabilitation benefits from these people.

Ah, what to say, the future of these people indeed seems in darkness. As if all this is not enough, the contractors to which the fishing rights of the reservoir had been tendered out to have already started harassing and shooing away local fishermen who are already suffering due to lower fish count in rivers which again is an example of ecological impact of the dam. Ah a bleak present and a dark future. What could be worse?

Posted in: development, group exposure, Narmada bachao andolan, smile pravah 2009 on Sunday, April 18, 2010 at at 6:09 PM