Truth of Displacement & Rehabilitation: GoM’s confidential Report శనివారం, అక్టో 31 2009

The Hindu /Opinion 17 April 2006

GoM’s confidential report

This is the text, obtained exclusively by The Hindu, of “A Brief Note on the Assessment of Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R & R) Sites and Submergence of Villages of the Sardar Sarovar Project.” The note marked confidential and dated April 9, 2006, was signed by Union Minister of Water Resources, Saifuddin Soz, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar, and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chauhan.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) comprising Prof. Saifuddin Soz, Minister of Water Resources, Smt. Meira Kumar, Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment and Shri Prithviraj Chavan, MOS in the PMO, deputed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister to Madhya Pradesh, arrived Indore late in the evening on April 6, 2006.

Soon after arrival in Indore, a meeting was held with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and some of his Cabinet colleagues and officers.

The Madhya Pradesh Government made a presentation and wanted the GoM to appreciate that the Madhya Pradesh Government had taken concrete steps to rehabilitate Project Affected Families (PAFs) and that Rehabilitation and Resettlement would be completed by 30th June, 2006. In that connection, the GoM was requested to visit some sites such as Khalghat, Dharampuri, Lakhangaon and Borlai etc.

When asked as to how many SC/ST families were affected, the Government could not provide any information.

Early in the morning of April 7, 2006, the GoM left for a visit to Rehabilitation and Submergence sites.

The GoM visited Khalghat, Dharampuri, Lakhangaon, Borlai 1, 2 and 3, Awalda, Piplud and Nisarpur. The GoM was stopped at other places including Picchodi where people narrated their tales of woe. The representatives of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) had insisted in Delhi in their memorandum that a visit to Borlai, Awalda, Piplud and Nisarpur would be necessary to find out whether the claim of the Government of Madhya Pradesh that the PAFs had been rehabilitated was correct.

Khalghat

The GoM visited Khalghat site where Madhya Pradesh Government had offered land to 407 families. Only 2 families had accepted the land. The top soil there is black. The people say that they have to dig 10 feet deep to find the cultivable land. The Government had not succeeded in persuading the oustees to accept the land. Hundreds of people on the spot complained before the GoM that the Government had not conducted a proper survey and offered the land without consulting the oustees. Shri Mohan Lal Sharma (resident of Gazipur, District Dharampuri) who spoke on behalf of oustees, complained before the members of the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) that the Madhya Pradesh Government had acted in haste and allotted the land which was totally uncultivable. The members of the NVDA did not contradict Shri Mohan Lal.

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Jai Telangana మంగళవారం, అక్టో 6 2009

BOOK WATCH
By Anita Joshua

Jai Telangana

Telangana: The State of Affairs, M. Bharath Bhushan and N. Venugopal, AdEd Value Ventures, Rs. 250.

Ever a festering issue in Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana question assumed national significance after a three-decade hiatus since the Jai Telangana Movement in the wake of the 2004 electoral alliance between the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Sensing the widespread ignorance outside the State about the Telangana issue, M. Bharath Bhushan and N. Venugopal have sought to explain the rationale for the demand for separate Statehood in this collection of research articles on the region and literature from the area. Through these varied approaches, the attempt is to explain the reasons for the sense of alienation felt by the people of Telangana; traced in a 1969 vintage article by Duncan B. Forrester to the region being under Nizam’s rule for 200 years, cut away from the “rest of the Telugu country”.

Given that Telangana has become a major election issue in the State, the book examines whether polls foster separatism and uses government data to show how the region is lagging behind the coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh to make out a case for a separate identity. Also thrown in are two short stories in translation — the delightful “Golla Ramavva” by former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and “Bhoomi” by the doyen of Telugu short stories, Allam Rajayya.

Source: Literary Review, The Hindu, Oct 4, 2009 http://www.hindu.com/lr/2009/10/04/stories/2009100450060200.htm

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‘Little England’ in Secunderabad- Anglo Indians ఆదివారం, అక్టో 4 2009

Fun-loving and at home in ‘Little England’

Mithi Chinoy, Times of India

HYDERABAD: You don’t see much of them these days. The Anglo-Indian community, numbering about 20,000 at its peak in the 1960s, is a dwindling community today.

Of British and European descent, this community has co-existed peacefully here since the past 500 years. Also known as domicile Indians, these are the children of colonialism who have survived the Dutch, French and English.

After WW II ended and it was clear that Britain would have to liberate its colonies including India, this well-settled and happy community wondered if there would be room for them in the new India.

Their acknowledged leader and barrister Frank Anthony united them by stressing their Indian culture and roots.

As member of the Constituent Assembly, he secured a special place for the community in the Constitution, including a reservation in parliament and some legislative assemblies.

Aiding him in his endeavour was the All-India Anglo-Indian Association, the bedrock of the community, now in its 127th year.

Immediately after Independence, there was a wave of migration, chiefly to Europe and England, but the exodus from here was to Australia, Britain, Canada, the US and New Zealand in the late 60s and early 70s.

Making the transition was very easy for them as all they had to prove was their descent from a British paternal grandfather. At the time, the refrain often heard from those immigrating was, “Wer’re selling out and going to Australia.”

The city stood helplessly watching the community known to be so full of beans setting up in a far off land they knew nothing of. As a result, today the population of this community has fallen to mere 2,500 families.

Concentrated mainly at Lalaguda, Secunderabad, or Little England, the Anglo-Indians were a really fun-loving and vibrant community.

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