LOWER INDRA FACES RESISTANCE DUE TO FAULTY RAHAB.

LOWER INDRA FACES RESISTANCE DUE TO FAULTY RAHAB

Friday, 10 May 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

The cost of creating an irrigation facility per hectare of land has reached to Rs 5 lakh in case of the Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP) located here

This will continue to increase, because the project is still incomplete. The State Government has submitted a proposal for an additional budget of Rs 500 crore to the Central Government for completion of the project.

If the resistance of the displaced families is a reason for delay in completion of various dam projects in India, it was not so in the case of the LIIP. The project was started in 2000 with the active support and cooperation of the affected people. They were assured of land against land as compensation. Land amounting to 1,368 acres was also identified in three different tehsils of Nuapada and Balangir districts. But these lands located in different 15 villages were encroached lands which could not be made free by the respective Tehsildars. The people were forced to accept cash compensation against the acquisition of their lands. Still, there was no opposition. The displaced persons bought lands on their own. The value of land in the command area had gone up to more than a lakh per acre, whereas the compensation paid to the displaced persons for the land acquired by the project was very low i.e. between Rs12, 000 and Rs 20,000.

“How can we purchase land with such meager amount?” question the displaced persons. The people of Kalimati village lost 2,027 acres of land in total to the project, but they could purchase only 364 acres.

People of Haripur village after losing 593 acres could not buy even one acre of land. They settled in Government plots reserved for the Jawans, which will never be settled in their names. The data with the project authority reveal that the displaced persons of Kalimati, Raghupali, Dargaon, Jhalkusum and Lambipani villages have lost more than 5,000 acres of land but have purchased 930 acres in total i.e. only 18 per cent of what they possessed in their old villages.

“We had inherited lands from our forefathers in our old village. I had 36 acres of land but the compensation was paid for 2.95 acres only,” says Padmini Parabhoi of Haripur. Chakrabarti Parabhoi, a displaced woman, who had 10 acres of lands but was paid compensation for 50 decimals only. “We were ousted from the village before the land was settled in our name under the Forest Rights Act,” says Padmini. These villagers have lost more than 700 acres of such forest land against which the compensation was not paid.

 “Had the rehabilitation assistance been paid in time, we would have settled in our new places,” say the affected persons of Kalimati village, who are still inhabiting their old villages as they were not able to construct houses in their new habitations. Jihat Majhi of Kalimati village and his two brothers lost 18 acres of land to the project and received about Rs 5 lakh in total. They could purchase only 4 acres in a non-irrigated area with that money. “Our lands were fertile, but the amount of compensation was meager,” says Jihat. He was paid rehabilitation according to the 1994 policy and by the time the payments were made, the 2006 rehabilitation policy was declared. He is still to get the ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh declared by the Government for the displaced persons covered under 1994 policy.

“It is unfortunate that a total of 2,937 families covered under the 1994 policy in 2000 have not been fully settled. This was caused due to sheer negligence and inability of the department officials to develop adequate infrastructure in the new settlements,” says Nitya Pradhan, who is the secretary of the Lower Indra Bistapit Sahayak Samity (LIBSS).

 “With no fault of ours we are made to suffer,” laments Alekh Majhi, one of the affected persons and LIBSS president. “The Government should provide us rehabilitation as per the 2006 policy,” he demands.

The affected families who are now more than 10,000 (it was only 1,460 at the beginning) have started opposing the construction after 12 years.

“We supported the project for long 12 years with the hope that the Government will compensate our loss. But all our dialogues with the Water Resource department, including the Chief Minister, have failed. We will not allow further construction,” say the affected families.

They are on a strike since December 2012 and have not allowed the project work to run. The people have a 34-point charter of demands at present. “Eight of our demands are related to policy matters like implementation of the 2006 policy to rehabilitate and resettle the families covered under the 1994 rehabilitation policy; enhancement of the value of the lands acquired; consideration of girls of 18 years a displaced person, etc,” say the affected persons.

“Other demands are related to corruption, misappropriation and mismanagement,” they add. The list of demands of the displaced persons looks very genuine. The schools and Anganwadi centres in most of the villages have been closed although the people have not yet been evacuated.  More than 250 children have become dropouts due to such arbitrary decisions of the project authority. “One of our demands is reopening of these schools and nutrition centres till they are declared fully evacuated,” says Nity Pradhan.

“The representatives of the WR department had given an assurance in writing in January last that the demands would be fulfilled within a month, but more than 4 months have passed and there is no action,” adds Nitya.

The Government does not seem to take much interest in fulfilling the demands of the people. On the other hand, the project authority is spreading misinformation within the people of the command area that the displaced persons are creating hindrance in the development of people of the command area.

 There is also a misinformation about the extent of area to be irrigated. The project authority claims that the project will create irrigation facility for 29,900 hectares, including 13,500 hectares in Nuapada district and 16,400 hectares in Balangir district.

However, environmentalist and Water Initiative Odisha convenor Ranjan Panda begs to differ. “It is not true,” he says, explaining that the big dams all over India have not achieved their planned output and in case of the LIIP also it will be at least 15-20 per cent less.

The project proposal of the LIIP very clearly mentions about this. It says that the actual intensity of irrigation of the LIIP will be 10 per cent and 40 per cent less in Kharif and Rabi respectively. This means instead of 29,900 hectares as stated, it would be about 26,000 in Kharif and only 11,000 hectares in Rabi. But the information has not been made public. “We are informed that the entire 29,900 hectares would be double cropped area,” say the farmers of the command area.

“There was no need of such a big project in Nuapada district. More than 2,000 hectares of lands in the command area of the LIIP in Nuapada district are yielding double crops due to irrigation through lift irrigation points installed in the downstream of the Lower Indra Dam. The LI points and small check dams and barrages would have created the same intensity of irrigation if they had been chosen as alternatives,” says Kalahandi Vikash Parishad president Rabi Das.