Reality cheque

Kumar’s family,including his father,uncles,brothers,sisters,cousins etc,jointly own around 49.5 acres. At least 13 of his family members received cheques of Rs 2-4 each. His father,uncles and Kumar himself received sums between Rs 250 and 1,100,depending upon their share in the land.

Like Kumar,hundreds of farmers in Jhajjar’s villages got cheques worth Rs 2-12.

The state government however claims to have worked out an extremely “tedious and accurate” formula after a compensation of Rs 3,500 per acre had been announced for waterlogged areas in the district,which could not see any sowing during rabi 2011 season due to heavy rainfall.

“For instance,Kumar’s cousin got a cheque of Rs 2 because he owns 1,680th share in the affected portion of their joint land. Similarly,another cousin Tekchand got Rs 3 because he owns 1,260th share. We calculated each person’s share according to the revenue records,” says Hitender Sharma,tehsildar of Beri,Jhajjar district.

Ajit Balaji Joshi,Deputy Commissioner,Jhajjar,also defends the compensation amounts. “Villagers have not got their land partitioned in the revenue records. For instance,there is land measuring 10 acres of which 1 acre got affected due to waterlogging. Though the family members have verbally earmarked specific areas (khewats) of the jointly owned land and the affected one acre might belong to one person,in the revenue records,there are 22 shareholders in that particular khewat. The shares are further divided according to percentage in the revenue records. Thus,the compensation was given according to that.”

A local leader of the INLD,Virender Kadiyan,contests this. “The government acted arbitrarily. Whoever was a Congress supporter was given more compensation,while the rest were ignored,” Kadiyan claims. “They measured the losses in four categories—0-25,25-50,50-75 and 75-100 per cent of affected area. Depending on these percentage shares,they assessed the losses and awarded compensation. A farmer who is sowing wheat crop in one acre suffered losses of at least

Rs 30,000,and what has he got? Rs 2 or Rs 3,because he doesn’t own share on paper.”

What are they supposed to do with the cheques,the villagers further ask. As Vikas of village Paharipur says,“It takes at least Rs 500 to open a bank account. Many of my family members and I have received cheques of Rs 6 each. It shall cost us much more to get the bank accounts opened for encashing these cheques. These cheques are nothing but a piece of trash for us.”

“The bus fare from our village to Jhajjar is more than what we have got as compensation,” says Sukhbir,another resident of village Paharipur.

However,according to Beri tehsildar Hitender Sharma,it is wrong to call the administration cruel,as the opposition is doing,for being actually very “honest”.

“The district administration realised the pain of farmers,and proposed compensating farmers for their crop losses. We cannot go beyond the revenue records. Had we not followed the records for identifying the shares,these farmers would have accused us of corruption. Now they are raising a hue and cry because of their own mistake,because they have not got the partitions done,” he says.

As for the cheques,Sharma says banks accept them for whatever amount they are. Moreover,he warns: “The compensation is being given till July 31. The money not claimed by the farmers shall be returned to the state government by the district administration.”