DHANDUKA, May 19: In Amli village, Dhanduka taluka, three children thought they had seen water and they started walking towards it. A few hours later, two were found dead with heat and exhaustion pursuing the mirage. Survival is a challenge in the 60,715.51 hectares of uncultivable wasteland, where the only relief provided in the brown, windswept landscape is just a few stumps of ganda bawal.Surprisingly, all such land in the state is reserved for the resettlement of 40,000 Narmada oustees. Development work has come to a standstill, as the wasteland is reserved for oustees.There are some social organisations willing to set up co-operatives involving local people to improve the quality of the land with afforestation, and at the same time fighting the salinity ingress.By a government regulation (LND 3976 of November 5, 1976), all such land is reserved for Narmada oustees. In fact, for the last 22 years all applications related to land allotment in the area are forwarded to the Narmada Water Resources Management and Water Supply department. The promise is that the Narmada canal when it comes will bring much-needed water.``Even if the land is to be used for wells or a large tract by the forest department for afforestation, it has to come to us,'' said K. V. Patel, under-secretary in the Narmada Water Resources department. Only after a no-objection certificate is issued by the department is land given out.One question being asked is why is the wasteland, from which residents are moving out, being reserved for Narmada oustees? ``Once the area receives Narmada water, it will become very fertile and much sought-after,'' counters Patel.Government officials in Gandhinagar do not realise is that the salinity level is so high in the region that even if the water levels rise, it will only pull out the saline from underground because of the pressure and make the land worse. ``On the other hand, because of the lack of drainage the salinity will spread to other arable regions," said Rajesh Shah of Vikas, a non-government organisation.The organisation creates co-operatives for land and water activities and growing a green cover of ganda bawal, ber and piloo, which will be long-term assets for the people living in wastelands. Six applications are still pending with the government since 1992. If given, it would have affected 250 families who are bonded labourers in the area.In addition, because of this clause, the time it takes from the time of application to the final answer as it passes through village panchayat, the taluka level and the revenue department which in turn passes it to the Narmada department, which again sends it to the collector of the region for field surveys, is minimum of 4-5 years.Another social organisation, the Behavioral Science Centre (BSC), egged on by their experience in the Cambay region, where they benefitted nearly 3,000 families in eight co-operatives by growing vilayati babool for charcoal making, found their application in the Dhanduka taluka for 795 acres rejected on the same plea.``In any case the darbars and the local dadas control the existing resources. We were asking for land for the locals to increase their assets. These locals work as bonded labourers,'' said Javed Amir of BSC.If allotted, 107 families would have got alternate incomes in addition to the environmental benefits. Now the organisation has taken recourse to providing sewing machines to the women as an alternate income source.Meanwhile the government continues on its skewed stand: ``If it is for a school or a well, we still give it but not for afforestation. Most probably, the organisations want it because they know it will be fertile land in the near future,'' said Patel.Narmada water may green the wasteland one day but till then the project is depriving locals of numerous benefits.
