LOWER INDRA LAND OUSTEES SEEK REHAB UNDER 2006 NORMS

LOWER INDRA LAND OUSTEES SEEK REHAB UNDER 2006 NORMS

Monday, 16 September 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

The Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP) authority has failed to suitably rehabilitate the displaced people in Nuapada district. As a result, having lost their hearth and home and cultivable lands for the construction of the dam, thousands of displaced people are now languishing in poverty.

Construction of the LIIP was started in 2000 across the river Indra, a major tributary of Tel river of Mahanadi basin, having a catchment area of 1,093 sqkm. The number of displaced people in the beginning was estimated to be 1,460. When the project started disbursing rehabilitation assistance to the displaced people in 2002, the number had already increased to 2,937.

The payments to these displaced people were made according to 1994 R&R policy. The number further increased due to delay in land acquisition process and there was a subsequent addition of about 2,000 displaced people. Meanwhile, the R&R policy changed and under the 2006 R&R policy, the newly displaced people got payments five times more than their predecessors.

It is an injustice to those, who agreed to take the payment before 2006,” says Dhanmati Thhapa, wife of Jayasing, who was paid about `81,000 as R&R assistance according to the 1994 policy. The Government subsequently paid an additional amount of `2 lakh as ex-gratia to each one of the 2,937 displaced people, who took their payment before 2006. But, that was still approximately `2 lakh less than the amount paid, according to the 2006 policy. This discrimination brewed resentment among the displaced people and as a protest they did not leave the village.

However, to force them to leave the habitation, the district administration withdrew all services like education, nutrition and health services from the villages depriving the people, mostly the children and the women of their basic needs. “The demand of the displaced people is genuine,” says Birendra Chobe, who was paid according to 2006 policy.

“Most of the displaced people have spent their entire amount for purchasing one or two acres of land far away from their old habitation and there is nothing left for construction of a shed to live,” he adds.

Dhanmati Hati lost 2.5 acres of low land, which was yielding 80 quintals of paddy. She got `87,000 against this as compensation. When she purchased the same quantity of land in Kandei village of Balangir district, she had to pay `1 lakh per acre plus registration fees.

“All the money we received from the Government as compensation and rehabilitation assistance was spent for purchasing the land,” says Dhanmati, who is unable to move to the new village as she has no money to build a house there.

“We don’t have any source of income now. I had to mortgage the land in the new settlement to manage my family and for the marriage of my daughters. I am not able to get a girl for my son, because we don’t have a house,” she adds. 132 families of Kalimati and Jhalkusum villages have not yet constructed their houses in their new settlements due to shortage of money. Dhanmati’s son, who is more than 18 years old, is now eligible for R&R assistance, but has not received anything. More than 100 such youths have not yet been paid their dues.

The project has not provided any homestead or agriculture land to any one of the displaced people. They were paid the money and left to find land for them. “Some of the displaced people have spent their entire money in traveling from one village to another for searching land and giving advances to the land owners to buy land,” says Chobe.

As many as 73 families are still living in the village Jhalkusum which will be completely submerged after the completion of the dam. In another village Kalimati, there are 60 families. These are the villages which were famous for cultivation of a variety of crops like cereals, millets, pulses, sweet potato and vegetables. Kalimati was being credited for introducing “potala” and became very famous in the district for the vegetable.

“We exported Potala to Raipur, Khariar and Bhawanipatna. But, the dam has destroyed everything — our sustainable economy as well as our culture and above all the prestige we had in our village. We are accorded low status in our new settlement,” they lamented.

The LIIP on the contrary claims that the demands of the people are not genuine. “The project has done enough to satisfy the need of the people,” the authorities say. To protest against the unresponsiveness of the project authority, the displaced people had resorted to strike and stopped the construction work for more than three months in early 2013. The project office at Khariar was even locked for 10 days. To suppress the agitation, the project authority filed criminal cases against the leaders of the displaced people and succeeded to some extent. The strike was finally withdrawn. But in the villages the spirit is still up.

“The Government might be thinking that it has crushed the strike. But we are ready to fight till last breath,” say Saibani Sahu, Dhanmati and the women of Jhalkusum village, adding, “We will not leave the village until our demands are fulfilled.”

The displaced people have also suffered a lot due to the corruption involved in the process of selection. A socio-economic survey to enumerate the displaced people was conducted by Lower Indra Bistapit Sahayata Samiti (LIBSS), an NGO engaged by the Water Resource Department, to extend support in R&R activities.

The list of displaced people submitted by the LIBSS was not followed by the Rehabilitation & Resettlement section of the project. “Sidelining our list of displaced people, the R&R and Land Acquisition (LA) sections of the project included names of some people arbitrarily, who were not eligible for the assistance. We had written to the department about this but our grievance was not heard,” says LIBSS president Nitya Pradhan.

Such arbitrary inclusion and exclusion of displaced people was made with an intention to force people to pay bribe to the officials and the brokers. The police are now investigating at least 15 such fake cases, where money to the extent of `1 crore has been paid to fake and nonexistent persons. One staff of the LA section of LIIP, a bank official and a journalist are in jail for their alleged involvement in this case.

It is interesting that the R&R and the LA sections of the LIIP had sent a list of 100 such fake and nonexistent displaced persons to the WR department, a few months ago for sanction of displaced people, which was rejected. A question arises here: If that was fake, then why the WR department did not take action against the LAO and the PD, R&R who recommended these names to the department?

“The officials from top to the bottom have shared the booty. The LIIP became a milking cow for the corrupt officials and some brokers. More cases of corruption would come to forefront, if an investigation is conducted properly,” say the villagers.