ROURKELA: Twenty six-year-old Nirupama has been silently protesting from morning to evening in front of the Dulanga mining project office with her two kids, demanding her share of resettlement land. Along with her are 26 women who have also been sitting on dharna since February 1 alleging injustice meted out to them by the district administration by deleting their names from Project Displaced Families (PDFs) list of NTPC’s Dulanga mining project in Sundargarh’s Hemgir block after they got married.
Alleging gender discrimination, the women protestors have slammed the district administration for being insensitive to their ordeal. A graduate, Nirupama was initially unaware of the complex provisions of the Land Acquisition law. But after being conversant with provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency, and Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act, she is determined to get justice for all women protestors whose names were included in the family survey for resettlement benefits in 2012 but dropped after they got married.
The women have been waging a nine-year-long battle since. Camping in front of the secluded project office about four km away from nearby villages, they have been on agitation since February 1. Except three, rest of the 24 protestors are either illiterate or semi-literate. Recounting her experience, Nirupama said notification for land acquisition was done in 2010 and family survey was done in 2012. Her family’s 15 acres of agriculture and homestead land were earmarked at Dulanga village for acquisition.
She said by then she was counted as a single family member after attaining adulthood. She got married in 2014 and years later, she was dismayed to find her name deleted from the 2017 Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) matrix. Similarly, Tikeswari Biswal who got married in 2016 but was widowed in 2018, is left to fend for herself with a two-year-old kid without any right on the land due to her. She said for a village girl, marriage on attaining adulthood remains a family and societal compulsion.
“That should not deny me my rights as a displaced family member,” she added. The protestors also alleged that physical displacement for Dulanga, Khaprigochha and Beldihi villages is at different stages without declaration of cut-off dates except for Majhapada. Incidentally, Sundargarh Collector had sought a clarification from the Revenue Department on R&R claims of the protesting women, on February 9 but a response is awaited. Meanwhile, Sundargarh Sub-Collector and Administrator (R&R) Abhimanyu Behera was unavailable for comment.