High Court fumes: District Resettlement Officer should be thrown into the Dam

February,22,2017:

Government had acquired Petitioner's Land for the Dam Project in the late 1970s.

Furious about farmers being affected by the Chaskaman Dam project, around 60 km from Pune, haven't been rehabilitated since decades, the Bombay HC on Monday slammed the state govt., saying that the Pune district resettlement officer should be thrown in the dam.

A bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur & Justice Girish Kulkarni was hearing a petition filed by Bajirao Bombale, a farmer, seeking alternate land in Pune's Dawadi village to resettle his joint family. His land and house were acquired by the govt. for the project in the 1970s.

When the Judges, in the order, directed that "resettlement officer open his eyes", the govt's advocate urged the Court not to use "such harsh words" against him.

This led the judges to question what's harsher - their words or what has been done to the farmers by the district resettlement officer.

Justice Chellur said "You feel we're harsh to the officer. He must be thrown into that dam, along with him, his sins'll also be washed'' . "They've no house.. no land for their livelihood & nobody bothers," she added.

Farmer's advocate, Shakuntala Wadekar argued that despite Court issuing an order in year 2013, the claims of farmers haven't been settled.

Advocate Wadekar said that several families had been uprooted & are forced to live on the street. The court was told that 396 applications for resettlement are pending.

She said that some women are still roaming on the roads with their grandchildren, adding that farmers are illiterate, so even after documents were submitted, their claims had been rejected saying that insufficient documents had been provided.

Setting 6th March as date for the next hearing, the court directed Pune collector to be present "to understand what steps to be taken".

The judges said they will also arrange a Lok Adalat for the affected.