‘Paid ₹2 lakh bribe to get ₹12.5 lakh compensation’:Villagers displaced by Daudhan Dam project claim they were declared dead in govt files

Daudhan Dam is the ₹45,000 crore Ken-Betwa Link Project’s center point. The government calls it ‘nectar’ for Bundelkhand. But the people who were displaced to build this dam have been sitting in a Panch Tatva Satyagraha for 12 days, half-naked in 42 degrees Celsius heat. These people stand in the middle of the river with nooses hanging and protest by lying on funeral pyres. Their voices carry different stories of government deception. Someone has received ₹25,000 as compensation instead of a house, while someone got ₹14,000. To obtain the relief package of ₹12.5 lakh, they had to pay ₹2 lakh in advance. Among them, Ajodhya Prasad says, We are alive, but in government records our death has already occurred. We didn’t pay bribes, so we were declared dead on paper. Dainik Bhaskar reached the ground to understand who these people are? Is this merely a symbolic demonstration or have they really been deprived of their rightful share… read the report Documents have become a source of income for bureaucrats Daudhan Dam is about 50 kilometers away from Chhatarpur. This dam is being built on the Ken River in the core area of Panna Tiger Reserve. For this, about 20 surrounding villages need to be relocated. Obviously, where there are villages, there are also people and the legacy of their generations. Land and property, animals and memories of ancestors too, but for government officials these are just packages worth a few rupees. The share of government employees is already reserved in the displaced persons’ portion. Most displaced persons are tribals. They are less educated. They neither understand the meaning of Samagra ID nor the date of birth written on the marksheet. But all this is necessary to obtain compensation. The need for these documents is a sure guarantee of earnings for government clerks. Allegation- First they did corruption, now they are committing atrocities The most prominent face of the hunger strike is 35-year-old Amit Bhatnagar. Standing for hours in water with a noose hanging, Amit says- The administration has done a lot of corruption here. To hide it, they are now committing atrocities on us. If you need a Samagra ID or want to add your name to the voter list, it costs money. Adding your name to the list for compensation also costs money. Then when the money comes, you have to pay a bribe to receive it. A gang of middlemen is operating, people have become indebted Amit said that people here have become indebted. Their homes are gone and they are also in debt. There is a gang here of ruling party leaders and middlemen. The Lokayukta recently caught a patwari red-handed taking a bribe from a tribal woman here. Four types of irregularities in compensation 1. Advance bribe of 2 to 4 lakhs for relief package Under the relief package for displaced persons, there is a provision to give 12.50 lakh rupees. However, patwaris and gram sachivs are demanding advance bribes of 2 to 4 lakh rupees from people for this. Those who did not pay bribes were not even included in the compensation list. 2. Villagers get 3 lakh per acre, outsiders get 80 lakh The second major irregularity is that in the village where local people were given compensation of 3 lakh rupees per acre, outsiders bought land from farmers and got it diverted. After that, the same land was considered as residential plot and compensation was given at the rate of 80 lakh rupees. Everything happened with the connivance of the administration. 3. Person is alive, but dead in government’s list There have also been some cases where a person is running from office to office to prove himself alive. He was told that his name is not on the list, rather he has been declared dead. 4. Where will a father of 4 children bring proof of being an adult These are tribal villages. Here Aadhaar card is not valid for birth certificate. Where will people who never went to school bring school records from? Even a father of four children is being asked for proof of being an adult. Such people are raising questions that where will they bring such a certificate after so many years? Anil from Palkua village says that we got 20 lakhs for 4 acres. If we take this same land in Bamitha or Chhatarpur, we won’t even get one acre for this much. The government was saying they will give 4 times. Now understand the pain of the people No money to pay bribes, so no compensation received Kamla Adivasi from Khamri village in Panna district, who came to join the movement, says – We had 5 acres of land. We received 14 lakh rupees as compensation for it. Wherever we go, land is not available for less than 8 to 10 lakh rupees per acre. My husband has four brothers. How will we survive? We did not receive any compensation for the house. We had built the house by working hard in sun and rain, leaving our children behind, everything has been wasted. Kallu Bai from Mainari village in Chhatarpur says – My father-in-law has three brothers. 18 acres of land is going. No money has been received yet. We don’t have money to give bribes. It has been said that if the work gets done, money will have to be given. Told, ‘If you go to Delhi, you will be sent to jail’ Hisabi Rajput says that we were going to Delhi, but we were not allowed to go there either. It was said that if you go to Delhi, you will be sent to jail. When we returned from there, we sat on hunger strike here at the dam again. Dheeraj Bai said – We have been here for 11 days. Spending days eating salt and roti. Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t. No officer is even coming here to talk. ‘They are forcing us to become terrorists’ Kamboj Patel from Silawat, who is protesting by standing in water with a noose hanging, says – People from Tikamgarh, Guna, Satna, Katni and Bhopal bought land here and got it diverted. They received compensation according to plots. There are 11 people in my family. Our house is on our farm land. We had one and a half acres of land, for which we received only 5 lakh rupees as compensation. There were 3 borewells and one well. A bribe of 10 thousand rupees is being demanded. The government is forcing us to become terrorists. We should be rehabilitated by creating organized villages. Anil from Palkua village bought a plot in Bamitha for 10 lakh and spent 15 lakh rupees on building a house. He got the registry done in good faith, thinking that the package money would come, but payment was not made for 6 months. When asked, the officers said that if you want it quickly, you will have to pay a bribe of 2.50 lakh for a package of 12.50 lakh. Later, the deal was settled at 1.50 lakh. Half the money was taken in advance and the rest after the work was done. Meanwhile, Balla Yadav alleges that he received 9 lakh compensation for one of the two houses, while a bribe of 4 lakh was demanded for the other. When he refused to pay the bribe, his name was removed from the list. Officials asked for evidence, survey team formed ADM Namah Shivay Arjaria said that the administration has held talks with the displaced people. They have been asked to provide evidence of those taking bribes. Strict action will be taken against the guilty. There are complaints that some properties have not been assessed. A survey team of 4 SDMs and 10 Tehsildars has been formed for investigation.