1961 Pune flood: New book documents trials of survivors

Though 43-year-old Kharate was born after the flood, he grew up seeing the hardships his family faced due to the flood. Speaking with other people whose families were affected by the flood, he discovered the story of his family was the story of several others. From 2001 to 2008, he started meeting the affected families and understanding their pending issues.

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His research made him realise which problem came under the domain of which government department. He started writing to different government departments like the collector’s office, tehsildar’s office and city survey office, asking them to look into issues, but receiving no response.

“I realised that because I was doing the correspondence as an individual for issues that concerned so many people, the matter was being ignored by the government. So in 2009, I founded an organisation named Panshet Purgrast Samiti,” said Kharate.

The flood-affected people, 3,988 in all, were rehabilitated by the government in eight areas in the city — Erandwane, Parvati Darshan, Dattawadi, Shiv Darshan, Nisenahat, Bhavani Peth, Janwadi and Health Camp. “I visited each and every family, spent hours and days with them to understand their pending issues, related to property cards, encroached lands, construction and study the related papers. All this took six to seven years. Initially, many officials got angry, asking why I was digging up such an old issue. But as they realised I had no vested interest and was trying to bring up genuine problems being faced by the flood-affected people, they started supporting me and helped me meet senior officials of various government departments,” said Kharate, who is a graduate and runs a snacks centre in Erandwane.

His efforts finally bore results. By 2010-11, issues which could be addressed on a local level were resolved with immediate orders. For issues which needed to be addressed on a ministry level, orders were issued to the collector, city survey officer and tehsildar to prepare detailed reports and submit them at the Mantralaya. “I follow ed up on these, but it took time on the administrative level. I was able to have a meet with the rehabilitation minister Patangrao Kadam and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat. They agreed to take a decision to resolve the three main issues which I had pointed out,” said Kharate.

The three pending issues were: those who had not paid the ownership cost should be given one last chance to make the payment, and in the property card, the word ‘lease holder’ should be changed to holder, for those who had already paid the ownership cost (677 out of 3,988 had not paid); property transactions done by those who had paid the owenership cost should be considered legal; open space encroached upon by the flood-affected people around their house should be dealt with under the government resolution (GR) dated April 4, 2002. It states slums that had come up on government land before 1995 can be treated as legal by taking charges.

“Our argument was that if the GR is applicable on slums, then why not on others,” said Kharate, adding that the decision on the three issues was taken by the government on July 15, 2013.

“Though the problems were addressed with a decision in the favour of the flood victims, issues related to property transactions and encroachment are yet to be implemented on an administrative level,” he added.