Malin 10 years on: Part 1 | 7 years since rehabilitation, survivors and crippled gram panchayat await land transfer

However, on record, the land still remains with the revenue department with the transfer of ownership stuck in the administrative red-tape. This has posed considerable challenges to the working of the gram panchayat as it has no rights to take decisions pertaining to the land and land use or solve the many issues plaguing residents.

The villagers and Malin gram panchayat have repeatedly corresponded with the revenue department in the last few years but the issue remains unresolved.

’13 homeless families’

In July 2015, as the effort to rehabilitate the Malin landslide survivors gathered pace, the government agencies identified 82 beneficiaries who would get a home in the rehabilitation scheme.

Later, however, owing to some dispute, survivors and descendants of only those who had a documented home in the old village were allotted a home in the rehabilitated village. Thus, the number of homes allotted came down to 67. Of the 15 families left out, villagers believe that 13 have a genuine claim to a home in the village.

Malin Sarpanch Raghunath Zhanzare in front of the Gram Panchayat office built as part of the village rehabilitation. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)

“They were people who were not paying taxes and did not have a record in the gram panchayat office but nonetheless, they are from the village, they own agricultural land and have been here for generations,” said Raghunath Zhanzare, sarpanch, Malin.

Of the 13 families, 11 have migrated to Pune for work but are actively pursuing a home in their native place. Of the remaining two, one elderly woman stays in a tin-shed slightly away from the new village, while the other has recently moved into the ‘talathi office’ in the new village as it was mostly unused.

Zhanzre said there is unanimous opinion in the village that these 13 families deprived of homes should at least be allotted an empty plot in the rehabilitated village.

“There are empty plots in the village that can be allotted to these families but the gram panchayat is helpless because we don’t have the authority. The land is still with the revenue department,” said Zhanzare.

Neglect of Malin memorial

In April 2022, when the rehabilitated village was handed over to the survivors, a memorial ‘Smritivan’ was erected in a portion of the land at the original site of the village. The memorial, developed by the state forest department, comprises three large memorial stones bearing names of 151 villagers who died in the tragedy surrounded by 151 trees of various species.

Seven years on, the memorial has fallen into neglect with the plantation seeing uncontrolled outgrowth of the weed. Some families are also using it as grazing land for their cattle. The villagers are demanding that the memorial be handed over to the gram panchayat from the forest department.

Vijay Lembhe, a resident, said, “One of the three stones has also cracked. We tried it with a wire. The forest department is not able to do the upkeep. The villagers do it every year around the anniversary of the incident. They should hand it over to the gram panchayat so that it can be well taken care of,” said Lembhe.

‘Can’t rein in troublemakers’

The villagers have also raised the issue of troublemakers from neighbouring villages who own the land next to the rehabilitated village creating trouble for the villagers. The gram panchayat lacks the authority to deal with them.
“The boundaries of the land that was bought for rehabilitation has not been fixed, the neighbouring farmers are obstructing the residents of new Malin over land use,” the co-operative body wrote to Ambegaon tehsildar on April 4, 2022.

The ‘Smritivan’, memorial created to the victims of the landslide, has seen uncontrolled outgrowth of the weeds. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)

Apart from this, some residents of the new village have undertaken construction on the empty spaces besides the homes and others have haphazardly expanded the homes without obtaining any permission. “The gram panchayat can’t stop them from doing that due to pending transfer of land,” said another villager.

Many correspondences from village

Although the issue was being raised by the villagers for a while, the gram panchayat finally convened a gram sabha over the issue on March 15 2022, and unanimously demanded that the ownership of the 3 hectares 11 R land, on which the rehabilitated village stands, be handed over to the gram panchayat. Reminders were again sent on May 11 2022, August 15 2023, and on January 8 this year.

“We will again raise the issue on July 30, when an event will be organised to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the tragedy,” said gram sevak Milind Agare. When The Indian Express contacted Ambegaon tehsildar Sanjay Nagtilak, he confirmed that his office has received the requests from the gram panchayat.

“During the rehabilitation, the plots were created on the land and were used for building of homes and creation of civic amenities. On the record, the land is still with the revenue department. The demand of the villagers is just and we have received a copy of the Gram Panchayat resolution and we will soon send the proposal to the Pune Collector office for handing over of the land to the Malin gram panchayat,” said Nagtilak.

Local MLA and Minister of Co-operatives in Maharashtra Dilip Walse Patil, who was actively involved in rehabilitation of the village, couldn’t not be contacted for a comment.