Farmers from Raia have been forced to move the High Court to protect their paddy fields only because of the negligence on the part of the panchayat, particularly the sarpanch, with regards to the construction undertaken by Sapana Developers that is named Eden Garden.
The panchayat had granted a licence to construct four buildings, a security cabin, swimming pool, club house and a compound wall to the developers and had made some stipulations for the licence.
Two major stipulations were that the developers would make adequate arrangements for collection of disposal or liquid waste and the sewage treatment plant proposed shall be kept functional throughout and that the recycled water shall be used within the premises and not be let out in the open paddy field at any point of time.
However, as the panchayat was not issuing the occupancy certificate, the developer went to court and got an order directing the panchayat to issue the occupancy certificate merely because the affidavit sworn in the court by the sarpanch did not mention all the facts.
The sarpanch, in his affidavit, only stressed on the fact that the developer had not given the land to relocate the nearby cross that would have to be demolished for road widening and accordingly at the terms of compromise the developer agreed to gift 66.72 sq mts of land to relocate the chapel.
However, the developer has been letting waste water flow into the fields and this has destroyed many farmers’ means of livelihood as they cannot cultivate the fields. In fact a well in the fields whose water used to be consumed till recently has now got only dirty water that cannot be consumed and is only used to irrigate the fields.
Three farmers from Raia have not got any crop during the last season as their fields were totally inundated and while all the farmers used to generally cultivate around 20 tonnes of paddy every year, last time the production dropped to only 14 tonnes.
The farmers used to also grow vegetables and used the water from the well to cultivate them. However, this year they have not been able to do that as they fear the water from the well may be contaminated and are scared of catching disease while plucking the vegetables from the soiled fields with their naked hands.
Rosario Fernandes, who formed the Raia Farmers Club, to fight the battle to keep their fields cultivable, has not moved the High Court to seek relief from the developer continuing to release waste water in the fields.
