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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Labourer ‘buys' Chhattisgarh land worth Rs 3cr by Supriya Sharma

Labourer ‘buys' Chhattisgarh land worth Rs 3cr by Supriya Sharma

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published Published on Nov 30, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 30, 2011

In the winter of 2009, Vilam Singh, a young tribal farmer from Chhattisgarh's Kawardha district, applied for 100 rupee-a-day work under MNREGA, the rural job scheme. 

One year later, the same below-the-poverty line farmer bought land worth 3.36 crore rupees in another district, Janjgir Champa. 

What explains the sudden turn of fortune? 

"He did not turn rich overnight. He was simply roped in to act as a front by a power company that wanted to buy tribal land but did not want to compensate the tribals with a fair price and jobs," alleges Congress MLA Mohammad Akbar who unearthed the land documents and waved them in a press conference on Wednesday. 

Incidentally, the land transactions have taken place in a cluster of villages where Videocon is buying land for its power project. 

Six months ago, a TOI report exposed how Chhattisgarh home minister Nankiram Kanwar's son Sandeep Kanwar acted as a 'front' and bought tribal land illegally for Videocon -- 'benami' land deals that were subsequently struck down by the district collector. 

TOI also reported - but could not dig out conclusive evidence - that Kanwar was not the only 'front' and there were other illegal land deals that need to be investigated. In that context, it pointed to large number of land purchases by one Bilam Singh, a resident of Chirpaani village in Kawardha. 

Chirpaani is part of Akbar's constituency. "I was intrigued when I read the report and I decided to probe. I found out Bilam or Vilam Singh was a 25 year old man from a poor tribal family. I tried to track him down but the village sarpanch said he has not been seen in the village since last year's Diwali," says Akbar. 

Akbar then accessed land documents in Janjgir Champa and found 45 land deeds accounting for 74 acres of land purchased by Bilam Singh for 3.36 crore rupees. The land purchases were made between July 2010 and January 2011, the same period when Kanwar was also buying land in the area. 

Chhattisgarh`s rules do not permit sale of tribal land to non-tribals, without the permission of the district collector, who must ensure the displaced tribal is given alternate land or jobs, apart from suitable compensation. To circumvent these safeguards, in what appears to be widespread practice, power companies are enlisting tribals to act as fronts to first buy land from mutiple tribal farmers, and then transfer it as one bloc for their projects. This reduces the liability of the company and the compensation to the farmer. 

? For instance, the home minister's son Sandeep Kanwar, a tribal, bought land from poor tribal farmers at less than one-third the rate set by the government for land acquisition for industrial projects. Since the land was sold to Kanwar, and not the company, the tribal farmers lost both a fair price and the right to rehabilitation. 

Taking note of TOI's report, published in June, and the political outcry that followed, the collector of Janjgir Champa district cancelled the transfer of land to Kanwar, ruling it was "benaami" and "illegal", and ordered that the land be restored to tribal farmers. But no criminal action was taken against those involved nor were other land deals investigated. 

"It is a massive conspiracy to dispossess poor tribals of their land and rights. Power companies are colluding with local officials and powerful interests. Clearly the government lacks the will to investigate. This should be handed over to the CBI," said Akbar. 

As many as 36 power projects are coming up in Janjgir Champa, requiring nearly 40000 acres of land, forty times the land being acquired in West Bengal's Singur by Tata Motors, before it turned into a flashpoint. Most of the land in Janjgir Champa, incidentally, is also irrigated double crop land like in Singur.

The Times of India, 1 December, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Labourer-buys-Chhattisgarh-land-worth-Rs3cr/articleshow/10936871.cms


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