Lahu Ughade patiently awaits outcome of legal battles between Lavasa and other land holders in the hope he too will get his land back
Lahu Ughade patiently awaits outcome of legal battles between Lavasa and other land holders in the hope he too will get his land back
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| Not lost hope: Lahu Ughade |
Fighting against bigwigs is no mean feat. Still, a 21-year-old man from a small village called Gadle in Mulshi taluka nurtures the hope that one day his land, which falls under the ceiling category (see box), will be given back to him by the district collector of Pune and the state government.
The Ughade family belongs to the Dhangar community, a tribe of landless people. They owned a total of six hectares of land ufffd approximately 20 acres ufffd in the Gadle village.
It is alleged that the state government had diverted a total of 372 hectares of ceiling land to Lavasa as per the recommendation given by the revenue department.
S R Suniti, national convener of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), said the landless farmers and tribals were kept in the dark about the land deals. A total of 609 hectares of ceiling land, belonging to 170 land holders including 98 tribals, have been sold to middlemen who were actually paid agents of the Lavasa Corporation.
Lahu's father Kondiba was the owner of three hectares and his grandfather Jhilu owned another three hectares.
However, the Ughade family claims that in 2003, a villager Sadik Maula Shaikh, acting as a middleman, misled them and sold the three hectares of plots for a meagre amount of Rs 37,000 each.
"We stay in Khanapur and hence we could not pay attention towards our land in Mulshi taluka. Once a year we used to go the place. Three years before when I went to my plot, I saw a board had been put up by the Lavasa corporation. I was shocked and later started collecting documents related to my land. That's when I realised that the agent Shaikh had sold our land to Lavasa without informing us," Ughade said.
"While making the land sale deed document, Shaikh gave the reason that my father and grandfather were uneducated and staying far, and so had authorised him (Shaikh) to carry out the deal. But this is a complete farce and a conspiracy to grab our piece of land."
(A copy of the sale deed is with MiD DAY). Speaking exclusively to MiD DAY, District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi had said, "The process of handing over ceiling land to Lavasa Corporation has been stopped. Illegal deals, especially those involving ceiling land, have taken place in large numbers, and strict action will be taken against those found guilty. Government departments, including the public works department (PWD), irrigation, forest, town planning, will also take legal action wherever their rules have been flouted by the project.
Advocate Ajit Kulkarni said that every case should be looked at separately. The ceiling land can be transferred to private individuals or companies only after the permission of the competent authorities. It needs to be checked whether in a particular case the order was issued or not.
