TATA KE REVADI BAT RAHI HAI APNO KE NAM

TATA KE REVADI BAT RAHI HAI APNO KE NAM

By Pravin Patel

As per a report published in a local newspaper published from Jagdalpur, lower level revenue staff of the Lohandiguda area have misused their official position by arranging to get the compensation paid to their relatives despite they are not the lawful owners of the land.

One example to expose the fact is that the persons named here below who all are the relatives of the Deputy Tehsildar and Patwari have managed to get the compensation award in their favour on the government land at Kumhli, even not registered in their name.

1. Jetendra Singh son of Joginder Singh Khasra No. 605
2. Chandra Sekhar son of Joginder, Khasra No. 605 /1G
3. P. Gautam son of Narayan resident of Santoshi Ward, Jagdalpur Khasra No. 536
4. R. Shakuntala Meshram, Khasra No. 507 / 1G
5. Yogita wife of Dinesh Thakur Khasra No. 680

It has also come to our knowledge that these persons are also being favored to get the permanent jobs in the company in return of the undue favours granted to the project proponent to crush the voice of the tribals.

GAMES PLAYED IN THE NAME OF PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION

Many of those who are the residents of Jagdalpur and Narayanpal, and had no land at Dhuragaon have suddenly become the land owners, once the steel plant was proposed in that area. Another interesting fact is that most of those persons are the relatives of the revenue staff officials of state government. Few examples are stated here below to expose the fact:

1. Suraj son of Bipin Behari Das
2. Sushma son of J.Devangan
3. Shanti wife of late K.Devangan
4. Bimal son of Kamal Meshram
5. Bijeta wife of Rajendra Sethia
6. Kundan Meshram
7. Binay Kurup
8. Karuna son of Shivnath
9. Jyotidas wife of Prabudas
10. Priyanka Rani.
11. Satyanarayan son of Bhairam Singh
12. Vikas son of K.Devangan
13. Father James son of Mathew
14. Er. Arjun Rao son of Satyanarayan Rao
15. Vedanta son of Rohini Shrivastava
16. Hargovind son of Bhairam Singh Sethi

Most of the above persons have collected the amount towards compensation in lieu of land but had no record of land ownership before the steel plant was proposed in the area. Suddenly, they have become the owners of the land mostly in sizes of 20 decimals each and have put their claims for getting permanent employment in the proposed steel project.

The matter needs to be investigated to bring the culprits out in public to expose the truth of the claims of the government. While the actual land owners are forwarded to jails, coerced and compelled to receive compensation, the near and dear ones of the district administration officials are making merry of the situation by not only receiving money in the name of land lost but also becomes eligible for getting employment.

The statement of the SDM Neelkanth Tekam that he has not seen the documents pertaining to those land and only after going through the same, will be able to say something.

Great! Mera Bharat Mahan.

• Misuse of official power to pressurize tribals to take compensation:

The said report also further states that tribals of Belar village have openly accused SDM, Jagdalpur Shri Nilkanth Tekam by denying bail to the tribals who have been sent to jail on false cases under section 107, & 116 by stating they he will grant the bail only when the compensation is received by them through their relatives. This is another glaring example of how the official position is grossly misused to harass and pressurize tribals to accept the compensation, though they are not at all interested to receive any compensation since they do not want to give away their land. It is also stated that 29 tribals are in jail under section 107 & 116 since more than one and half month.

It is also pertinent to mention here that the above also includes few of those tribals who were detained on 11-12-07 when they were en-route to meet His Excellency, the governor of Chhattisgarh to apprise him of the excesses committed on them by the district authorities every now and then including clamping of false cases against them and putting them behind the bars for the only reason that they are refusing to accept the compensation despite pressure exercised on them by the district authorities.

It is also further stated that one lawyer Shri Girjuram Kashyap was also arrested and sent to jail only for the fault that he was assisting his clients to prepare bail petitions and other legal assistance. The involvement of the Collector in the matter stands exposed by the fact that when a delegation of lawyers went to his chamber demanding immediate unconditional release, the statement of the Collector was that to do leadership is not the job of lawyer. A lawyer should limit himself to the profession and keep away from taking leadership of others. It would be necessary to remind him that Motilal Nehru, Mahatama Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lok Manya Tilak and many other great leaders of the freedom movement of India are all lawyers. Even the present speaker of the Lok Sabha Shri Somnath Chatterjee, Arun Jaitley, Kapil Sibbal, Chidambaram, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Ravi Shankar Prasad are all very senior advocates as well as senior leaders also. The statement of the District Collector thus exposes his mindset that who ever is helping those tribals who are opposing to give away their land and also helping those persons whose relatives have been pushed to jail for false cases will be dealt with in similar manner, irrespective of wither he is a lawyer, People’s representative, Member of Parliament, Human Rights Activist or any body, no body will be spared if he becomes an obstacle to his designs of any how forcibly acquire land or to say in more blunt language to grab the land of tribals by use of force and misuse of official position.

• Tribals are forced by the administrative officials to receive compensation

As per another report published, Shri Hirmuram Mandavi of Takraguda, has alleged that administrative officers are coercing farmers to receive compensation in lieu of their agricultural land for proposed steel plant.

It is alleged that SDM, Jagdalpur Shri Nilkanth Tekam is misusing his official position to harrash and coerce tribals to receive compensation. He cited few of the examples which are stated here below:

1. Narsingh son of Rukdhar of Badanji was denied the bail of his younger brother who has been in jail. Only on his receiving the compensation, his brother was released on bail within no time.

2. Wife of Lachu Thakur received compensation on being threatned to dismiss her husband from the service.

3. Jahadaram son of Budhram of Belar village was forced by Dinesh Thakur, Patwari on the pretext that he will not give any land papers if they do not receive compensation.

4. Kailash son of Aaitu and also Patiram son of Hidma, both resident of Dhuragaon were blackmailed that if he receives compensation, then only they will be given the land ownership documents of the government land under their occupation.

5. Dumarram son of Budhram of Chindgaon was forced to receive compensation by threatening of one Mr. Patkar who is an employee of the agriculture department, Lohandugda that the land is not in his name and if doesn’t receive compensation, his land ownership rights will not be recognized.

6. Radheshyam Nag, son of Charan Singh of village Badanji whose son is an employee at the education department of the state was paid compensation in the name of his father, on the threat to take compensation or face disciplinary action to dismiss him soon.

7. Munnaram son of Bundi of village by mischief committed by Bimal Meshram who first by taking him in to confidence and then falsely told him that every body has received the compensation and if does not receive now, he will have to make several rounds of the earth but even that he will not get the compensation.

8. Turubai of village Kumhali was threatned inside the jail by the village kotwar Kapurchand to take the compensation.

9. Suresh Kumar Bhardwaj son of Amarsingh Bhardwaj was threatened to be dismissed from service and was thus coerced to receive cheues for the compensation amount in the name of his elder brother, father and Uncle.

The list is long with names of Sukman, Laluram, Lachindhar, and so on with the similar stories. This is the truth of how the compensation money for the land to be lost is being paid but still publicity is made as if those land losers are gladly accepting the same.

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