Brunda’s brethren have no rights on land

KALAPANI TIKRA (BARGARH):It seems there is no end to the woes of kin of Brunda Sahu, the farmer who committed suicide on November 1 over crop loss due to pest attack, and 235 other families residing in Tikra (hamlet) of Kalapani village here.

The entire 65 acres on which Tikra is situated is ceiling surplus and grazing land (Go Char). None has rights over the land even though the families have built houses on the patch and are residing there for the last more than 50 years.

Candidates of all political parties contesting from Bargarh have assured them to regularise the land in their favour time and again but to no avail. Most part of the 65 acres houses the Gandhi Memorial College, Market Yard of Regulated Market Committee (RMC) and the Gram Panchayat office while the remaining area is occupied by migrant families from Balangir, Padampur, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar who are living there in shanties.

Incidentally, the land on which house of Brunda is located is close to Budelpali-Kalapani Chowk and has already been acquired by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for widening of NH-6. Moreover, compensation for the land acquired by NHAI has been wrongly paid to descendants of the family of one Kishore Panda, who owned the patch before it was surrendered as ceiling surplus.

According to villagers, Brunda’s house was first located on the land where the Gram Panchayat office stands now. After being forced out of the land in the early 2000s, he later built a two-room shanty at the place where it is located now. They rued that despite running from pillar to post, the land on which their houses stand has not been regularised. Only one household has managed to get two acres of agricultural land in its name, they said.The villagers further said uncertainty looms large over their fate as they might be kicked out of the place any day.

BJP MLA seeks murder case against Labour Minister

Bargarh: Padampur MLA Pradeep Purohit on Tuesday demanded that murder case should be slapped against Labour Minister and Bhatli MLA Sushanta Singh for not trying to prevent farmer Brunda Sahu from committing suicide. Singh had accused BJP of flaring up emotions of Brunda by provoking him to take the extreme step. He had also released a video which showed an agitated Brunda threatening to end life over crop loss due to pest attack and one Nirbhaya Gupta urging people to forward the clip so that the attention of the State Government can be drawn to the issue. “If Singh was aware of such a video, why didn’t he stop Brunda from taking the extreme step,” Purohit questioned. Thanking Nirbhaya for his effort, he said it was aimed to wake up the State Government through social media. Instead of playing politics over the video, Singh should have assured the farmer of all help and impressed upon him not to take such a drastic step, Purohit said. Releasing the video four days after the death of Brunda clearly shows that Singh has failed to act judiciously and hence, is liable to be booked under murder charges, he added. Defending the role of Nirbhaya, Purohit said he was moved by the helplessness of the farmer and his action was aimed at getting help for Brunda. There was nothing offensive in the video which provoked Brunda to commit suicide, Purohit said and attributed the suicide trend to absence of clear-cut policy on agriculture and assistance to farmers.