Sometime in the 1980s, the family was asked to vacate that land too, for a fly-ash dyke built by NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power producer. With a compensation of Rs1.5 lakh, he then bought the 2 acres of land in Siddhi Khurta that he is fearful of losing now.
“The soil is grainy and we get little rain. We can’t grow rice here, only wheat which meets our year’s supply,” said his son Krishna, who supplements the family income by selling milk.
Across villages in Singrauli, resentment is simmering over alleged government attempts to acquire land without first discussing compensation and rehabilitation.
Vivek Porwal, Singrauli district magistrate, said he had no statistics on the number of people who will be affected by the projects because land surveys are still being completed. He also said no survey has been carried out of people who have been displaced several times among the 128,000 population of Singrauli.
“If the government doesn’t provide us alternative land, we will not give it for less than Rs10 lakh an acre,” said Jagbali Prasad Vaish, a local Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader. “We want one job per family and special compensations for those who have been displaced more than once,” said Vaish, who will lose some land to the Reliance project site.
Deepak Gupta, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Reliance project in Madhya Pradesh, refused to comment.
Villagers say the local administration has refused to discuss a rehabilitation package and cite discrepancies in land records while distinguishing cultivable from barren land, which is cheaper.
Villagers protest
In Gharaswal—the site of Essar Power’s proposed 1,200MW plant—villagers prevented government officials from conducting land surveys, leading to skirmishes with the police. More than 15 people of this village were jailed for three days in May for obstructing work, residents said.
“We want the court to decide what should be done about our land and future,” says Rajeev Singh Jaiswal, a local farmer, who has filed a petition against the government in a lower court.
The mood turned ugly last month in the nearby village of Bandhora when a police vehicle arrived at the home of Mohan Saket, a marginal farmer. Saket’s house was set on fire and levelled to the ground by a bulldozer, purportedly because he had built a house on government land. Saket and two relatives were whisked away to the police station and beaten up, residents claim.
Ravinder Singh Uikey, superintendent of police of Singrauli, denied all charges. Singrauli district magistrate Porwal admitted that the house was demolished for illegal occupation of government land.
With land getting more difficult to access, companies such as Essar Power are offering incentives to purchase land privately. Essar has promised Rs3,000 a month to the eldest member of a household until he turns 58. “We can’t employ everyone because the skillsets are missing,” said R.P. Gupta, CEO of Essar Power’s Singrauli project.
Not just loss of land
Across the nation, up to 60,000,000 people are estimated to have been displaced by power, irrigation, mining and other development projects since independence. Rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced populations has always been an issue.