SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2024
ALFRED FERNANDES
SANGUEM: When an MLA goes to a minster on behalf of his or her people with a memorandum, it is a part of an elected representative’s job. But when the memorandum is about a series of issues regarding relief and rehabilitation of oustees for a dam project, lingering for 40 years, then all that stares in the face is unresponsive governance cutting across party lines
After 54 meetings of Selaulim Rehabilitation Committee, most problems faced by the ‘Selaulim Evacuees’ have still remained unsolved.
Every promise or deadline for the solving of issues has been dammed. And so is the fate of those who gave up their ancestral lands for the ‘development’ of the area
“While the government had initially assured the evacuees of getting their issues resolved in a couple of years and with all infrastructural facilities being provided to them without much ado, things have not improved much for the Selaulim Evacuees even after four decades of their displacement,” said Manoj Paryekar, Panchayat member of Bhati Village Panchayat, who is also one of the displaced villagers.
Even the meetings of the Selaulim Rehabilitation Committee held at Sanguem, are now held either at the Secretariat or at such other place convenient to the committee members. This has kept the evacuees away from having their say at the meeting
The major issues, which need to be tackled on priority basis are declaring the evacuees as Class-I occupants of the agricultural and housing plots, which were allocated to them at the time of rehabilitation. Only Class I occupants get the same status as full-fledged land holders and get benefits like easy local procurement with the land as surety.
The State government had assured the process of declaring the Evacuees as 'Class-I occupant’ from Class –II would be completed twenty years after the land acquisition
However, it is around 40 years now and the evacuees continue to remain as Class-II occupants of the plots allocated to them.
In the absence of clear title to the plots, the evacuees are finding it hard to get loans from banks and other financial institutions for the development of agricultural activities in the plots allocated to them.
Meanwhile, 89 families from the original Curdi village, whose names did not figure in the initial list of Selaulim Evacuees prepared by Water Resources Department (WRD), are still in the lurch. This meant that these families are still left without the allocation of agricultural and housing plots, even after their claims being identified as genuine stakeholders for awarding compensation.
Paryekar said all these so-called ‘missing families’ could well be provided with agricultural plots at Wadem and Valkini village.
Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar had taken up the issue concerning Selaulim Evacuees on several occasions in the Assembly. At one such session, Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, the MLA from neighbouring Quepem, had assured to solve the issues which surround the Selaulim Evacuees.
It’s back to submitting memorandums to yet another set of ministers. Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar submitted a fresh representation to the Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate and WRD Minister Felipe Neri Rodrigues.
The evacuees are also facing drinking and agricultural water supply since the time of their rehabilitation. In the last season, the farmers having their sugarcane cultivation at Wadem suffered huge losses after their crop dried up for want of water supply.
The cruelty doesn’t end here. It may be recalled that the height of the dam was increased to 41 meters from 37 meters. In the process, 107 agricultural plots allotted as part of rehabilitation got submerged underwater. As if this wasn’t enough, the families who have not been allotted plots, are being asked to take plots in the same belt.
The rehabilitation process of Selaulim Evacuees is a basket case and can be showcased as the best example of insensitivity of those who have given up ancestral lands for projects, a grim reminder to many who are losing land to construction and development projects across Goa.
