The cultivators of 80 bighas have been completely devastated by the submergence of land in the Jamaluddin Kanhar dam in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. When the project started in 1976, their ancestors were given meagre compensation. Later the governments did not build the dam and they remained settled there with their families. When the construction work of the dam started in 2015, all the people demanded compensation from the government under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 but there was no hearing anywhere. Cases were filed for the opposition movement and many people had to go to jail. The displacement package of 7 lakh 11 thousand rupees given by the government is like cumin in the camel’s mouth, due to which it is very difficult to maintain the family. Korchi, the resident of Ramesh Kharwar s/o Sahdev Kharwar, did not get the benefit of the displacement package of the government. His farm and house were submerged in Kanharand he is living with his wife and 3 children in a hut made of bamboo poles on the land he got in the displaced colony. The hut can collapse anytime in this heavy rain. His family is unable to sleep through the night for fear of not getting any employment and the hut collapsing. Mukhtar Alam, a resident of Sundari, has three sons, Jabir Hussain, Sabir Hussain and Kadir Hussain, whose names were in the displacement package. Still, despite the government’s mandate, their sons’ names are not in the displacement list, and today they are dispossessed of their land. Somehow running the livelihood of his family. Rajmania, the only daughter of Bindeshwari, a farmer of 50 bighas of Korchi village, and Baby, daughter of Jasimuddin, an owner of 20 bighas of Sundari, are not in the displacement list, while according to the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, the daughter is also entitled to the father’s property in the absence of a son.
People told about their miserable condition to the team of All India Peoples Front which went to Kanhar Migrant Colony to listen to the pain of the people. The team saw that only displaced people can feel how terrible the sting of displacement is. How many people’s blossoming family got disintegrated, how many daughters lost their maternal home and how many’s life became deserted? But the culmination of government insensitivity is that the people in the displaced colony have been denied the right to lead a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution and they are not even being provided basic facilities. The condition of the displaced colony is that the hospital built there is not functional, it is locked, there is no doctor and there is no arrangement for medicines. The displaced told that 1000 children study in the school but there are only two teachers. Due to the non-appointment of teachers, the education of children is getting hampered. Neither the road nor the toilets have been built in the displaced colony. As a result, there is a danger of a major epidemic spreading anytime. The drain is jammed and there is no arrangement for cleaning. This is the condition when big things are said about Kanhar Dam by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
It may be noted that in 1976, the foundation stone of the Kanhar irrigation project was laid on Kanhar and Pangan river in Amwar village of Duddhi tehsil of Sonbhadra. At that time the farmers were given compensation for the land. But no compensation was distributed to the houseless and landless people. Later the government stopped the work of this project and the project remained pending for a long time. The construction work of the project was resumed in 2015 but the government flatly refused to pay the compensation. While according to Section 24 of the Land Acquisition Act 2013, if the construction work is not started on the acquired land for 5 years, then that acquisition will be considered void and the displaced people should be compensated again. The Akhilesh government put severe repression on the movement on this demand. Hundreds of people, including senior citizens and women, were prosecuted, many had to go to jail, zila badar action was taken against dozens of people and a reign of terror was established in the entire displaced area. However, the construction work which started in 2016 has now been completed. The government had identified 1044 originally displaced families whose three generations were to be given a displacement package of ₹7,11,000. Out of 4143 families on the government list, there are about 200 such families who have not yet been given the displacement package. Similarly, out of 424 families of Form VI added later, about 390 families are yet to get the benefit of the displacement package. It is also worth noting that according to the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, daughters also get rights in the ancestral land of the father. Despite this, the daughters of the displaced persons were not included in the list made by the government and they were denied the displacement package. Similarly, those who have Form 3 or 11, that is, whose house was built but their name was not in the list, have also been denied the benefits of the displacement package. If displaced are to be believed, there are 66 families in Badhadu, 60 in Gohda, 158 in Amwar, 122 in Kudri, 346 in Barkhohra, 331 in Sugvaman, 733 in Korchi, 425 in Bhisur, 776 in Sundari, 88 in Lambi, 18 in Randah, about 3100 families. have been deprived of the benefit of displacement package.
There is BJP government at the centre and in the state and the power of the double-engine government is repeatedly publicised. But the condition in Kanhar is such that payment of a grant of Rs 1050 crore is pending for the last year in the Prime Minister’s Agriculture Irrigation Project of the Central Government. But neither the government of Uttar Pradesh nor the Central government is worried about it. As a result, the work of Kanhar Dam is incomplete, canals are not being built and the displaced are not getting compensation. The condition is so bad that to date the local MLA of the Bharatiya Janata Party has not spoken anything on the pain of these displaced people, nor has any administrative action been taken in this direction. In such a situation, the displaced have started preparing for a big movement. An appeal has been issued to the civil society of the district to support the movement and a big convention is being organized on August 16 in the Duddhi Bar Association’s hall. The strategy of the movement will be prepared in this conference.
Dinkar Kapoor, State General Secretary, All India Peoples Front
