The Bagmati Calling
I am reporting from the south bank of the Bagmati near Benipur in <=
span
class=3DSpellE>Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. An embankment along th=
e Bagmati is under construction here and the villagers =
from Benipur, Bharthua and Jivajor are sitting here on a Dh=
arna,
since 25 th
December 2007 demanding rehabilitation that would be caused due to construc=
tion
of the embankments on either side of the river under the banner of Punarwas Sangharsh Samiti, Benipur.
They have been sitting here off and on since 11th Apri=
l 2007
when the construction of the Rs 792 Crores embankments was started in the middle reaches =
of the
Bagmati, from Runni=
Saidpur in Sitamarhi to Kalanjar Ghat in Darbhanga distric=
t.
"They were forced to stop the construction of the embankments till such
time they were allotted land for construction of the houses outside the
embankments and the compensation for building the houses is paid to
them." They were promised
rehabilitation within a time span of three months last year when the Project
Officials and the Collector of Muzaffarpur assu=
red
them that their demands would be met soon and they should allow the work to
continue. The villagers yielded hoping that the officials meant what they s=
aid
but nothing followed. In the meanwhile, the Bagmati
mauled these villages thoroughly during the floods this year as the villages
were located within two (under construction) embankments of the Bagmati.
When nothing happened, the villagers wrote back to the=
collector
of Muzaffarpur on the 3rd December 2=
007
with copies to the Chief Minister and others asking for relocation soon or,=
at
least, some action by 15 th December=
2007
and when there was no response from anywhere, they sat for Dharna
once again on the 25th December and that continues till date. Th=
ere
peaceful agitation is being thwarted by local hired goons.
Benipur, once a prosperous village of about 500 famil=
ies
and the ancestral village of legendary Ram Briksha Benipuri have faced sedimentation due to the flood wa=
ters
with mud entering the dwellings to a depth of two to three feet. Thatched
houses had to be constructed over some of the pucca
buildings to accommodate the flood victims who had to stay in these makeshi=
ft
huts for over two months. The house of Benipuri=
Ji, had
to be cleared of about 2 feet depth of mud to celebrate his birthday on the=
23 rd
December last year (2007). The entire Kharif cr=
op was
washed away and the chances of any Rabi crop have receded because the whole=
of
the 750 acres land of the village is now sand cast.
Tej N=
arayan
Singh (82), a village elder, s=
ays
"he had never seen such floods earlier in his life and this were cause=
d,
surely, due to the negligence of the Government which had promised us
relocation before the rains last year. We cannot prevent the Government from
constructing this embankment; we do not have that strength. But the Governm=
ent
should look into our case sympathetically. We only want to be relocated in a
safe place. Nobody listens to us. We are sitting here for the past 21 days =
and
have stopped the work here but nobody is bothered. The project is construct=
ing
the embankments downstream wherever there is no resistance from the people.=
It
could as well bulldoze us and let us die. Nobody will demand anything then =
from
them."
Shiv Kumar Sinha (=
62),
retired teacher, who put all his savings in building a house in the village,
repents his decision. "If only I had known that I will have to leave my
house and go elsewhere, I may not have constructed this house. Further, the
Government does not say a word about our livelihood. Ours is a village tota=
lly
dependent of agriculture and that we are surely going to loose. There is no
provision for providing us land. The Government expects us to till on the h=
eaps
of sand."
The Bagmati story dates ba=
ck to
1950s when the lower reaches of the river were embanked during the embankme=
nt
boom. Rehabilitation was not an issue then as the post-independence euphoria
took care of that. Then the upper reaches of the river were embanked from I=
ndo Nepal b=
order
till Runni Saidpur =
in the
1970s during the emergency when nobody could raise any voice. All that the
people trapped within the embankments got then was a piece to about 5 decim=
als
of land outside the embankments and a shifting allowance ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 1500/ per ho=
use
depending on the condition of the house, whether thatched , tiled or pucca. Most of them are yet to get the land papers and
about one third of them are still living within the embankments braving flo=
ods
on an annual basis. The others face surges of water due to breaches in the
embankments.
People living in the so called protected areas are also
unsafe as the Bagmati embankments are notorious=
for
breaching every year. They breached at 7 places in 2007. Says
Ram Chandra Singh (75) of Benipur village and a former engineer working with th=
e Bagmati Project,'... the embankments were constructed=
about
30 years ago and, on average, breach at 5 places annually. They must
have breached over 150 times by now. That is the flood protection that we a=
re
going to get after we move from here. But let us move from here
first."
The Government is reported to have promised the victims
heavens on earth, as usual. The villagers say that they were indicated that
they will get a 'never before' package for rehabilitation that will give th=
em
fabulous price for their land and unimaginable cost of construction for the=
new
house. It has also promised a sum of Rs. 10,000=
/- for
immediate arrangements and Rs. 5000/- for shift=
ing
the house. Some people feel it is a prelude for acquiring land for SEZ in
future.
For any help (legal or solidarity) please contact
Rajat Kumar Singh
(Convenor – Punarwas=
Sangharsh Samiti, Village=
Benipur, PO Bharthua, Dist Muzaffarpur
Mobile- 09430459171) and Manoranjan Singh ( 09934660214=
)
Dinesh Kumar Mishra
Convenor, Barh
Mukti Abhiyan<=
/o:p>
Road No: 6B, Rajeev Nagar,=
Patna
800024
Bihar, India
Mob:+919431303360
e-mail: dkmishra108@gmail.com
India