NEW DELHI: It has been more than two weeks since the villagers of Rawta, situated in the outskirts of Delhi, were promised compensation from the government for their crops that were completely submerged due to heavy spells of rain last month.
Around August 21, due to heavy rains, many acres of land with standing crop were submerged in rainwater mixed with sewage from the open Najafgarh drain. The situation got so bad that water started entering the villager’s houses as well.
Later on, officials from the South West Delhi’s District Magistrate office reached the village and conducted a survey to take stock of the situation and promised the villagers compensation for their losses.
The Bhartiya Kisan Union - an umbrella organisation of several farmer unions across the country expressed their solidarity with the farmers and threatened to launch a protest against the Delhi government if it fails to solve the problems faced by the residents of Rawta village soon. According to the farmers, the government wants a committee to be formed at a local level which can take up the issue on how to distribute the compensation.
Parth Tyagi, a member of an NGO, is helping the villagers in forming their own Resident Welfare Association (RWA). “Panchayat system was ended in Delhi back in 1990, so there is no managing committee representing the villagers collectively. There is a requirement of forming a team of residents that can take up the issue with the government.
So I have decided to help them in getting an RWA registered in the name of the village,” Tyagi said.
Villages in the India do not have a RWA system, but as Delhi does not come under the category of agriculture state, it does not have a village Panchayat system either.
No gram panchayat
As Delhi is not categorised as an agriculture state, it does not have a village Panchayat system in place