Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A sinking island of political pawns -Kalpita Bhar Paul and Megnaa Mehtta

A sinking island of political pawns -Kalpita Bhar Paul and Megnaa Mehtta

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Mar 18, 2021   modified Modified on Mar 19, 2021

-The Telegraph

For the residents of Ghoramara island of the Sunderbans, the upcoming elections hold the key to their survival

“How long can we keep our faith in words? I feel that not only have I been betrayed, but I have also betrayed my people. What else can I do except boycott the party gatherings [referring to the TMC] and withdraw from all this?” Walking alongside the river, as one observes the landscape that evinces the reality of the shrinking island, Minarul expresses his resentment. A 34-year-old resident of Ghoramara island of the Sunderbans, Minarul has been committed to the Trinamul Congress. In the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections, West Bengal is poised at a historic juncture with the Bharatiya Janata Party making steady inroads with the hope of coming to power by uprooting the TMC.

Ghoramara, Minarul’s home, is the poster-child for the sinking Sunderbans. From the 1980s, local governments have been resettling its population in neighbouring Sagar island. Minarul explained how, in recent years, after much effort, he had managed to negotiate with the higher echelons of the TMC, including the MLA, and had received an assurance of rehabilitating 40 families. In exchange for their rehabilitation, he would guarantee that these families vote for the TMC. He says, “Nowadays when it is even difficult to bring consensus among three brothers, I brought 40 families to agree with each other.” He continued: “But, even with our best attempts in the last 7-8 years, not a single rehabilitation has taken place from the government's end.” Dejected, he says, “I have lost face; how can I return to ask for votes again? Even if five families would have been rehabilitated I could have understood that there is at least an honest attempt but to my despair we don’t see any movement... just the same old empty promises.”

As per the 2011 census, 1095 households still remain on the fast-sinking island. Current proposals for planned retreat and resettlement away from the Sunderbans are immensely problematic, not just because of the narrow cost-benefit analysis with which economic value is put on investing in lives and livelihoods but also because on other Sunderbans islands there are several push and pull factors, a diversity of desires and a lack of consensus among residents in the same village or even between two brothers of the same household, as Minarul suggested. Ghoramara’s case is different: all its remaining residents aspire to leave. So what is stopping the government from relocating these 1095 households?

Please click here to read more.


The Telegraph, 18 March, 2021, https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/west-bengal-assembly-elections-2021-ghoramara-a-sinking-island-of-political-pawns/cid/1809851?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tt_daily_twit


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close