RETURN our land; demands deceased farmer’s wife in village Ghumer;by Sudhir Mishra/ Bolangir 29thMay2014.

By

Sudhir Mishra/Bolangir

29thMay2014

RETURN our land; demands deceased farmer’s wife in village Ghumer;

===============================================

"I want my land taken by company be restored us" says Yashbanti Sahu wife of Chabi Sahu to media men and  activist who visited the house of deceased Farmer Chabi Sahu of Village Ghumer on 28thMay2014.

We have already mortgaged the rest small plots of land to local people While one piece of land has been mortgaged at rupees 20,000 and another piece of land has been mortgaged at rupees 15000.We have nothing now and we want our land back says Yashobanti

Chhabi sahu ,the farmer of Ghumer village in Patnagarh Block who committed suicide by consuming poison and died at Burla on 9^th  May last due to frustration of losing his land to companies in a fraudulent landtransfer .

It would be pertinent to mention here that around 10 companies from Agra,NewDelhi came to Patnagarh in 2005-06 and convinced rural farmers to give their land on lease to them, so that they could take up daily farming here. With help of local middleman, Teshil officials these land were fraudulently transferred to the name of companies .

 According to sources, ten companies  New Ace Builder and Developers, New Delhi,Taj Gases Private Limited ,Agra, Enercore Diesels Private  Limited ,Delhi, Supertech Printing Private  Limited Delhi, Sparsh Medicare Private Limited Delhi, LEFIN (India) Private Limited, Delhi,  Cladyin Hoteland Resort Private Limited Delhi, Millennium Steel Cast Private Limited Delhi, Fasteck  Sofwares Private, Delhi and Siyaram Energy Private Limited, Delhi acquired total of 358.43acre of land and a total of 70 sale deeds were executed.

After losing their land already two farmer had died earlier in that village and -Chabbi Sahu committed suicide by consuming poison in Maythis year .

The whole incident came to light thanks to effort by Saroj Barik (then working with ADHAR, and his colleagues. After publication this incident in The Pioneer and other media, the then collector R.S.Gopalan ordered an inquiry. Further an RDC inquiry was also ordered and then RDC Northern Division,Madhusudan Padhee   conducted inquiry into the incident confirmed the fraud which recommended strong action against the officials and middle man. Saroj pursed itfurther .Puspanjali Satpathy, Bhubneshwar also pursed it.ShankarPani Advocate brought the RDC report to lime light through RTI which was suppressed for months

Arun Mishra ofSamajwadi party took a lot of initiative in this regard and under his leadership farmers forcibly ploughed the land and cultivated there one year ago

The Bolangir district administration especially with Bolangir SP RAVI Praksh -extended all possible help to provide justice to farmers .The recently joined District collector M Muthukumar also extended help while Chabi was in treatment next day after he consumed poison.
Interestingly  the "official files related to fraudulent land grab at Gumer and other villages missed from Odisha secretariat   and it was beyond understanding  of common  man that how  a crucial file "goes missing" in Bhubneshwar -it points to "something  fishy" or murky deal "

Once a land is registered it is extremely difficult task to cancel the land deal.points out an activist here

Meanwhile the Crime Branch of Odisha is also inquiring in to the matter. However the main culprits -the company head is yet to be arrested- 

================================================

1) read the news item related fraudulent land grabbing by companies in Ghumer and other villages in Patnagarh,  in my blog 
2) Read the RDC inquiry report which is available in the internet 
=======================================================================