Panchram pulled all the strings to fetch some money to solemnize the marriage of her daughter last month. But he failed to find any buyer for his land that he planned to dispose.
Finally, the 45-year-old farmer in Bahanpath village of Korba district in Chhattisgarh had to sell his land-book (rin pustika) instead of land for a nominal amount. For, the sale and purchase of land in the area is banned after state government issued Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act.
Panchram is not the only hapless farmers holding huge land assets, literally, of no use for the last 11 years. About 450 families in the village—located about 30 km from the district headquarters are the victim of the alleged apathy of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL)—country’s largest coal producer and a flagship subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL).
“About 11 years ago, the state government issued section 4 of the land acquisition act for Bahanpath and adjoining villages to acquire land for the expansion plan of SECL’s Gevera coal,” Madhur Singh Kanwar, sarpanch of Bahanpath said. Since then, there is ban on the sale and purchase of land in the area.
The villagers were anticipating that the SECL would pay the compensation and acquire their land. But for the last 11 years, the coal mining major had not taken any initiative. “We are ready to give away our land the next day SECL announces acceptable package for us including job,” Kanwar said.
The local administration officials said the SECL had failed to announce the package while it had showed its reluctance to accept the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy of the Chhattisgarh government. This had created a deadlock and the poor farmers in the villages were feeling the heat.
“The villagers had refused to take the compensation as the rate proposed by the SECL was very low and not at par with the state government’s policy,” Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Korba G R Rathore said. The district administration had taken the initiatives and the SECL management had now agreed to pay the compensation as per the rate fixed under Chhattisgarh government’s R&R policy, he added.But the villagers said the SECL management only wanted to pay the land price as per the state government’s policy and had refused to give job to the affected people. “The day SECL announces that it will give job to the people displaced by the project, the villagers will voluntarily give their land,” Kanwar said.
The SECL management however did not respond to the e-mail sent by the Business Standard seeking its version had it refused to accept the R&R policy of the state government.
“But the biggest violation that had been ignored till now was the failure of the authorities concerned in implementing the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act that would have saved the poor villagers from facing such problems,” Laxmi Chouhan, director of non-government organization “Sarthak”, said.
The area comes under the 5th Scheduled. “And as per the PESA Act, the gram sabha or the panchayats shall be consulted before making land acquisition and finalizing the rehabilitation and compensation packages,” Chouhan said, adding that in this case, no such initiative was taken.
