A dispute over a grazing land at Mathak in Anjar taluka of Kutch district, arising out of its allotment to Rajkot-based Suzlon Wind Park Limited for setting up wind energy farm, has reached the Gujarat High Court.Village sarpanch Reva Govind Dangar and three others have filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) through their advocate Bharat R Parikh, challenging the allotment of seven acres of the gauchar. The petition has called the district collector’s action of allotting the land “illegal, arbitrary and in violation of the principles of natural justice”.The allotment was made on the basis of government resolutions of June 11, 2004 and December 2, 2004. The petitioners said it was in clear violation of Section 38 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code and Sections 43(E) and 37 of the Gujarat Land Revenue Rules, which provide for issuing individual or public notices and inviting a bid for the sale or allotment of public property.According to the petition, no bid was invited by the district collector or any other government agency before allotting the land to Suzlon on October 8, 2008. They said the villagers, who had been using the land in question for generations as a grazing land, were not given an opportunity to be heard and put their point of view on the issue.It further said that the villagers, together owning 3,000 cattle, have been deprived of their source of living, as animal husbandry is the chief source of income in this part of the state where agriculture is totally dependent on rain. The petitioners said that the particular portion of the land had been allotted to the Suzlons in the guise of a ‘wasteland’, even as the village record clearly mentions it as a gauchar (grazing land). Although the state government has marked another area within the village for cattle grazing, it is unsuitable for the purpose. The petitioners have said that not even a blade of grass grows on the hilly tracts of the village dominated by the Dalits.
