35 years on, Maharashtra farmers await land

Thirty-five years ago, the state government had promised to allocate 1 acre of land to each of the 860 farmers who were displaced because of land acquisition for the Pawna dam in Pune district. All that was required for the government was to identity 860 acres of land in the adjoining villages to rehabilitate the farmers who had surrendered their agricultural land for the dam.

Flash forward to 2011 and there are still no signs of the government making any headway. A senior officer in the revenue ministry told DNA, “The plight of the displaced farmers can be equated to those of the mill workers who were jobless 28 years ago and are still waiting for a decent 300sq ft home in the city.”

Over the years, the government has cleared several mega-projects and also executed relief and rehabilitation packages. But for these displaced farmers, there has been no action beyond assurances.

The government claims that in the early 1970s, when the process of land acquisition was underway, there was no comprehensive policy making it mandatory to suitably rehabilitate displaced farmers. While admitting that there has been inordinate delay in the rehabilitation of the displaced farmers, a senior cabinet minister said, “In this case, we have to forgo the rules to allocate 860 acres since when the project was underway, there was no rehabilitation act in existence. Moreover, monetary benefits were considered adequate. But we are not running from responsibilities.”

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat are now going to convene a meeting to discuss how to fulfill a promise made three decades ago.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Girish Bapat said, “If after 35 years the government cannot provide one acre of land to a farmer, it reflects the total apathy of the government towards the poor farmers.”