To stop land e-auction, Gujarat tribal ‘king’ has a suggestion: ‘Sell our trees instead’

“We have requested the government to intervene. The bank officials are not listening to us. I am not sound enough financially to repay the amount. We want the bank officials to come up with some settlement formula that is feasible for us. We don’t want our land to be sold to any private person,” said Dhanrajsinh (69).

He said the property, belonging to his deceased wife, is protected under section 73 AA of the Gujarat Land Revenue Code according to which a land owned by a tribal person cannot be transferred to a non-tribal without the permission of the collector. In his memorandum submitted to Collector Mahesh Patel Wednesday, Dhanrajsinh expressed apprehension that the auction of his land could lead to all the tribal rights being “snatched away.”

Dang, Gujarat’s only 100% tribal district, has a rich biodiversity and is home to a section of the Purna Wildlife Sanctuary. Due to a British-era agreement, its five Bhil kings, including Dhanrajsinh, are recognised by the government and continue to get a privy purse even as it was abolished for other princely states.

Dhanrajsinh’s agricultural land, measuring around one lakh square km, according to the documents attached with the memorandum, is situated in Moti Kasad village of Subir taluka.

In the memorandum, Dhanrajsinh said his wife Subhadra, who passed away five years ago, and her brothers had taken a loan from Bank of Baroda’s Ahwa branch on August 31, 2009. “Due to our poor financial condition, we could not repay the loan. Bank officials have issued us a notice of recovery of the loan amount of Rs 29.31 lakh. We showed our financial situation to the bank authorities and requested them to come up with a settlement formula but they did not listen. The bank officials had, in the first week of January, published an e-auction notice in the vernacular papers and invited bidders online…The e-auction will be done on January 31, 2025,” he wrote.

Unique status of ‘kings’

Dhanrajsinh pointed out in the memorandum that he was “still getting a political pension from the government as the erstwhile king of Vasurna”. He is entitled to receive a monthly pension of Rs 19,400. He, like the other kings of Dang – Gaadhvi state’s Kiransinh Yashwantrao Pawar, Linga’s Chhatrasingh Suryavanshi, Daher’s Tapatrao Pawar and Pimpri’s Trimakrao Sahebrao Pawar – receive the entire year’s pension in one go around Holi. The event is celebrated as Dang Darbar.

He said, “If our (tribal) land is e-auctioned to any other private person (a non-tribal), then other agricultural lands in Dang, which are protected under 73AA, will also be sold. We don’t know if the bank officials had taken permission from the Revenue Department before doing the e-auction of the 73AA agricultural land. If this is done in Dang, then all the tribal rights will be snatched away.”

Dhanrajsinh stated that the land in question is with the undivided family and has many legal heirs. “The mortgaged agricultural land has several teak wood and other trees. The bank officials should cut such trees, collect their due payment and hand over the remaining amount to us,” he wrote in his request. “The e-auction process should be stopped immediately, and for this, the bank authorities should issue notices in the newspapers,” he added.

When contacted, Bank of Baroda’s Chief Manager Surender Lal, who is the official concerned for the e-auction process, said, ”The decision was taken by the higher authorities at my bank. I have nothing to say on this.”

Sources at Collector Patel’s office said he was on leave and will resume his duties next week. They confirmed that Patel had received the memorandum from Dhanrajsinh.