Life comes full circle for displaced Saputara families

According to details ,the government had,39 years ago,acquired 450 acres in Saputara hills to develop it as a tourist destination. Post-acquirement,over 75 families were shifted to Navagam,two kilometres from Saputara,in houses constructed by the Gujarat housing board. But they say their names do not figure in Revenue records as houseowners. At present,over 200 families reside in the area.

Shifted to Navagam nearly four decades ago,residents get eviction notice again

A few days ago,some of the families received a notice from the district collector to vacate the land for an amusement park. On Thursday,the residents took out a rally from Navagam to Saputara and handed over a memorandum to Rajesh Manju,who is in-charge district collector. The memorandum demands among other things the development fund allotted to Saputara be extend to Navagam.

Deputy Collector K P Pandya said,“We have accepted their memorandum. We will have to go through old records before commenting on this issue. We have forwarded the memorandum to the higher-ups in Gandhinagar.”

Yashwant Puwar,a resident of Navagam,said: “At that time,75 families were shifted from Saputara. Now the number of families has increased. Where will our children and grandchildren go? We don’t have any source of income.”