Rehabilitation office grapples with one problem too many

Presently the DRO has just 14 members as staff. With 24 dams in the district,the total land acquired for the project-affected is 43,580 hectares of which till date only 4,923 hectares have been allotted . “It is practically impossible to complete such voluminous work by next month. Earlier we had about 75 people which was downsized to 25 and now to 14. One tehsildar,five talathis,five circle officers,three officers who have to trace land records and do the work of resettlement. We have repeatedly sought staff from the government but the problem has not been addressed,” said district rehabilitation officer Prashant Shelke.

With the Herculean task involving both those displaced before 1960 and after 1960,the district administration needs to trace all records for rehabilitation. “Those displaced by Pavana,Panshet,Virbaji Pasalkar,Ujani,Vir and Nazre dansm who did not come under the 1976 Act,have also been allotted land while the number of beneficiaries who come under the Act are 5,319 from the 25 dam areas in the district,” said an officer.

With the project-affected spread across 206 gaothans,those who have paid 65 per cent of the amount towards the new settlement within the 45-day period,according to the Rehabilitation Act,have been taken up by the settlement office. With 22,857 applications and 25,612 families included,the department will have to do a thorough investigation of each application.

Shelke said that his department is also carrying out a drive wherein all the details of each project and the land allotted will be clearly put up in a register to clear all the pending cases.

This is the first time that the office will have independent records of all the details of the project-affected in the district. The department will assess each and every dam independently and address the backlog.