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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Land holds up Aila dam plan

Land holds up Aila dam plan

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published Published on Jun 8, 2012   modified Modified on Jun 8, 2012

-The Telegraph

The government today admitted that almost 95 per cent of the job to repair Aila-ravaged embankments in the Sunderbans was unfinished because of land-related problems, a lapse that will leave seven lakh families living in South and North 24-Parganas vulnerable to floods during the monsoon.

The government was supposed to build 263km of concrete embankments by March this year but managed only 14km, primarily because of problems over land acquisition, irrigation department officials said.

The officials today said as there was not much time left for the onset of the monsoon, it had been decided that “patchwork” repairs would be done on the “most vulnerable stretches”. “It is not prudent to build new embankments till the rainy season ends. We will only refurbish those embankments that are in bad shape,” an official said.

Irrigation minister and Congress leader Manas Bhunia said: “We have not been able to meet our target. But this is also because the Left government did nothing.”

He met MLAs of the Aila-affected blocks today and asked them to submit a report mentioning the places where mud embankments were the most vulnerable. “We will repair these points at the earliest. The MLAs will submit the list in the next two-three days.”

Asked about the tardy implementation of the project, an official in Bhunia’s department said: “The Left government did not take initiatives to acquire land for the project apprehending protests. The new government has also failed to make significant progress although it announced a better land-acquisition policy.”

The Centre had released Rs 1,032 crore in 2009 for work to start on the first phase of building the concrete embankments.

The officials said around 7,000 acres would be required to rebuild the damaged embankments. Of this, 1,700 acres have been acquired so far. The Trinamul-led government has approved acquisition of another 2,000 acres. Around 3,700 acres are required for the first phase, the deadline for which expired in March.

The officials gave three reasons for the lack of progress in land acquisition.

First, many of those in possession of land have failed to furnish ownership documents. “The land is in the name of their ancestors. Successive generations have not done the mutation to transfer the land in their names,” an official said.

Second, the government is yet to work out how it would provide jobs to a member of each of the 40,000 land-loser families. The chief minister had promised a government job for each such family.

Third, many people are still unwilling to part with their land. Mamata Banerjee had said there would be no forcible acquisition.

Bhunia said he was hopeful that the remaining 2,000 acres for the first phase would be acquired by October.

The Telegraph, 8 June, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120608/jsp/bengal/story_15584334.jsp#.T9HKILCO25w


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