Krishna PAFs caned

KOLHAPUR, Oct 29: The dharna by the Project Affected Families PAFs from Krishna valley witnessed some tense moments today when the poli...

KOLHAPUR, Oct 29: The dharna by the Project Affected Families PAFs from Krishna valley witnessed some tense moments today when the police canned the agitating PAFs who broke the compound wall of the district collectorate here, when they attempted to storm the premises to gherao the collector.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Rajya Dharan Va Prakalpagrasta Shetkari Parishad leader Bharat Patankar, speaking at Satara today announced that the PAFs would not allow the dam works to restart until the State Government gave in to their demands and tabled the amended Rehabilitation Act. A mob of PAFs had beseiged the district collectorate in Satara since early Thursday morning, the reports reaching here said.

The PAFs in Krishna valley spread over Satara, Sangli and Solapur districts had embarked upon a three-day dharna at 13 tehsil headquarters and the three district headquarters from Monday, demanding developmental rehabilitation and implementation of the policy of 8220;rehabilitation before construction of the dam8221;.

Demonstrations were also held at the tehsil headquarters of Khandala, Phaltan, Man, Khatav, Atpadi, Khanapur, Tasgaon, Miraj, Jat, Kavathe Mahankal, Sangola, Mangalvedha and Madha since Monday.

Swarajya Bhavan 8212; district headquarters 8212; in Kolhapur resembled a fortress since yesterday with a strong police posse being deployed at the building. The entrances were sealed after Collector Arvind Singh entered the office and traffic was diverted elsewhere.

Singh, who was remained inside his office till late in the evening, finally addressed the agitated PAFs around 8 p.m. assuring them that a committee would be formed to tackle the local-level issues.

Earlier, the agitating PAFs demanded that the collector should give them a hearing as a team of three officials the resident deputy collector and sub- divisional officers of Ichalkaranji and Karveer was despatched to attend the agitating activists.

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Senior communist leader Jeevanrao Sawant, former MLA Ravindra Sabnis were blunt enough to tell the three officials that there were acting on behalf of the government, without any feelings towards the affected people. The leaders insisted that a senior official be assigned to look into the PAFs problems at the local level.

Meanwhile, the police resorted to a mild lathi charge to disperse a group of PAFs attempting to enter the collectorate.

The PAFs, sitting outside the collectoratein Sangli handed over their memorandum to district collector Dr. Niteen Kareer, incoming reports said.

In Satara, the district collector later assured a 40-member PAFs8217; delegation that village-level meetings would be held on 12th day of every month beginning with a meeting at the Wang dam site on November 12. This would be followed by a meeting with PAFs from Urmodi valley.

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The ten-point charter of demands stressed for taking into account the PAFs demands while drafting amendments to the Rehabilitation Act. The organisation also flayed the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party Government for not tabling an amended Rehabilitation Act. Employment for at least one person from each of the PAFs, rehabilitation of the partially affected villages and equitable distribution of water, are the highlights of the PAFs charter.