Sentinel report
Palasbari LAC, Part-III
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has time and again reiterated that the Assam Government is committed to granting land rights to indigenous people. The government rolled out schemes like Mission Basundhara and Mission Basundhara 2.0 to provide land rights to the indigenous people of the State. While such initiatives have yielded significant results, yet there are many rural areas in the State where indigenous people have not been granted land rights.
The Sentinel team visited the area along the Palasbari Gumi embankment on May 10, 2023 – which was the last day of the team’s visit to the Palasbari constituency. The team met a woman named Tarali Kalita. Tarali lives in a small hut in the Dhowapara area of the Palasbari Gumi embankment with her husband Ratul Kalita and their two children. Ratul is a daily wage labourer. Unfortunately, till today the family has not been included under any government scheme and the family continues to live in an impecunious condition.
Baring her heart out to the team, Tarali narrated her tale of woe. “We have no land and so we have been living by the side of the Palasbari Gumi embankment for the last five years,” she said and added, “My father-in-law had land but some of that land was washed away due to erosion. We do not live with my in-laws and we have no land.”
Tarali claimed that she is eligible for being issued a ration card but she has not been issued one. The condition of Tarali and her family is indeed deplorable. They are indigenous landless people who have not been given land settlement. Tarali’s eyes reflected her despair. Like her, there are many other indigenous landless people in remote and rural areas who are in fact unaware of the process of applying for land settlement. The government, which appears earnest in its effort to grant land rights to indigenous people, should devise a mechanism to trace landless people like Tarali and her family, and give them land settlement.
The team next visited the Khitir Pukhuri village. Most of the people inhabiting this village belong to the fishing community (Kaibartas). The Kaibartapara Pipe Water Supply Scheme (PWSS) was started in this village. The team found out that only 50% of the households are getting water supply under this water supply scheme. When contacted, the caretaker of this water supply scheme said that under the Kaibartapara PWSS, water connections were provided to 203 households. However, some water pipes are now broken due to which many households are not getting water supply.
The Sentinel team visited the Nahira State Dispensary. While there was a doctor on duty, there were hardly any patients. The on-duty doctor said that the daily average of patients coming to the dispensary was 30-40. He informed that 14 types of blood tests are done in the dispensary.
The team talked to the local people. They said that many medicines are usually not available in the dispensary and they have to buy those medicines from private pharmacies.
The Nahira village has a number of water supply schemes but none of them are functional. Dwijen Kalita of the village said, “Under a water supply scheme, households received water about a year back when tests were conducted. But after that we stopped getting water.”
Dwijen Kalita is a farmer who has 8 bighas of land. He said that there are no irrigation facilities in the village and he has to depend on rainfall for irrigating his field. He also said that he does not get sufficient supply of fertilizers.
Kalpana Kalita of Nahira Boripara lamented that although she is eligible to be allotted a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), she has not been included in the list of PMAY beneficiaries although she had approached the local panchayat many times. She lives with her family in a small house which her brother-in-law built for them. Kalpana further said that she had filled the form for the Orunodoi scheme but unfortunately, she was not been included in this scheme also.
The team found that most of the roads in the Nahira area are concrete. But the road to the Salepara village is kutcha and in quite a deplorable condition. During the rainy season there is water-logging and then, travelling through this road becomes a harrowing experience. Villagers said that some years ago, popular singer Kumar Bhabesh had seen this water-logged road. They claimed that after seeing the condition of the road, he had composed the song Banpani. They further said that this road should be concretized at the earliest.
The team then inspected the water supply scheme in Dakhala village on the Dakhala hills. This water supply scheme was unique in a way as it envisaged pumping the water of the Brahmaputra that flows by the side of the hills to the water treatment plant at the top of the hills and then supplying it to the households through pipelines. When the team talked to two residents of the village – Prabhat Das and Srimati Das - they said that for the last 2-3 months, they have not been getting water supply under this scheme. They both said that steps should be taken by the authorities concerned to ensure that all households get water supply because the houses are situated at a height and it is difficult for the villagers to make alternative arrangements for water supply.
The State Government has rolled out many schemes for the welfare of the people and the overall growth and prosperity of the State. However, the ground reality is a bit different. This mismatch can perhaps be attributed to the inefficiency on the part of the administrative machinery in implementing these schemes, and also to the lack of awareness among people in the remote and interior areas about various schemes and how to avail their benefits.
While the government’s intent to uplift the people and improve their condition of living is evident, it must ensure that a proper mechanism is put into place so that poor, illiterate people with limited means can reap the benefits of these schemes. Unless the government schemes make a difference in the lives of the targeted beneficiaries who need such schemes the most, launching ambitious schemes will not serve any purpose.
During the recent Deputy Commissioners’ conference in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the Deputy Commissioners of the districts would have to play key roles in implementing development works in their respective districts. Perhaps the Deputy Commissioners can conduct field visits, especially to the interior areas in their districts, so that they can gauge the situation at the ground level and find out whatever shortcomings are there in the implementation of schemes, and address them. (Sentinel report concluding part)
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