Kutch villagers to become homeless
Joydeep Ray
Tuesday, June 24, 2008, (Fulra, Kutch)
An entire village in Gujarat's Kutch district is about to become homeless.
Two thousand villagers, the entire population of Fulra village, is in a state of shock since they got a notice asking them to vacate their village by July.
The villagers, living in the Fulra village for centuries, have been asked to move, lock stock and barrel to make way for a lignite mine.
The villagers said they are not going to give up without a fight.
The government-promoted Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation detected five million tones of lignite under the village.
But despite the notice, which was served through the state administration, the villagers refuse to budge.
"We are not going to move out of this place. Why should we? It is our own home, our farmland. Our temples, Mosques, everything is here. How can someone just come and ask us to vacate the entire village. Where will we go? How will we earn our livelihood and feed our family," said Mianji Osman Mamath, Sarpanch, Fulra.
Some of the houses in the village are more than a 100 years old.
The Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation has not offered alternative land, housing or compensation to the villagers.
And the company said it is all for a good cause but the villagers are far from convinced.
"The lignite which we have found here at Fulra will be mined and taken to fuel power plants. It's in the interest of everybody concerned," said PK Soni, General Manager, GMDC.
"This village is in existence for over last 180 years. GMDC is a company working since 1972, how come they come to us one fine morning and forcibly throw us out from our dwelling places. Things will not be too easy for them, let me tell you," said Dinesh Solanki, school teacher.
Under Rural Development laws, if an entire village is being evacuated for mining purposes, the villagers have to be given alternative housing as well as livelihood, schools and places of worship.
But in this case, the villagers do not even know where they will be in a few days from now.