NAGPUR, March 10: Vinayakrao Dhule was once the proud owner of 35 acres of fertile land in Shirri village along Wardha river. A freedom fighter, he volunteered to give up his land for construction of the Upper Wardha dam, setting an example for other villagers. He now regrets having sacrificed his only means of income.Vinayakrao now lives in a colony of displaced persons near Talegaon village in Wardha district. The compensation he received was too meagre to sustain his family for long. His heartrending story has put a question mark on the tall claims made by successive state governments about the ``attractive rehabilitation'' packages offered to project-affected persons.
Vinayakrao's is not an isolated case. Recounting their woes to a team of mediapersons visiting the colony, most of the project-affected villagers blamed it all on political leaders. The temples of modern India, they felt, had brought them nothing but a cupful of misery.
The Upper Wardha dam was planned in the early 1970s to provideirrigation facilities for 58,000 hectares of land in Amravati and Wardha districts. Over 9,700 hectares were acquired, displacing over 5,000 villagers in these districts. Most of them accepted the rehabilitation package which included cash compensation, alternate land in the command area of the then proposed dam and priority to project-affected youths applying in government services.
More than a decade later, most of the villagers received compensation ranging from Rs 1,400 to Rs 5,000 per hectare. They are still waiting for the land in the command area promised to them. Few got government jobs. Another cause for concern for most, besides the financial loss, was the climb-down on the social scale -- from farmers, they had now turned landless labourers.
Such accounts have only served to strengthen the case of activists opposing the construction of big dams by submerging fertile lands and uprooting villagers. Strong opposition to the construction of a dam across the Bembla river near Khadak Sawanga villagein Yavatmal district has resulted in the dam work coming to halt. An agitated youth, Dilip Yeole demanded that the state government should first come out with a statement giving details of the impact of irrigation projects on the cropping pattern elsewhere in the state and the benefits to farmers. Until the farmers are convinced of the advantages of the irrigation projects, they will continue stalling project work, he warned.
Unlike the Bembla project-hit, those affected by the Kar river medium project in Wardha district are resigned to their fate. The dam is coming up on Kar river at village Khairy near the tehsil town of Karanja and is meant to provide irrigation facilities to nearly 6,000 hectares of land and drinking water to Karanja town and 25 villages. Among the affected persons from Khairy village is Prabhakar Dhoble. His land was acquired long ago but he is still awaiting compensation. Another youth, Dhananjay Dhoble said, ``We have paid the price for development by sacrificing our only source ofsustenance. What we expect in return is honourable rehabilitation''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
