PMGSY road debris renders farmer landless and without a home

Meg Bahadur Rai stands in his now lost courtyard with his swamped by road debris
orchard in the background. This used to be flat land till a fortnight back.

Road cutting debris pushed out from the alignment above kicks up a cloud of
dust as it races down to Meg Bahadur Rai's home and land

SUBASH RAI

GANGTOK, 09 Feb: 60-year old Meg Bahadur Rai of Lower Barbing [under Martam-Rumtek constituency in East Sikkim], has been rendered landless, homeless and with this combined loss, without even an avenue to make a living any more. The culprit – a road being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana which has been dumping debris from the road-cutting works on to his land. Even as a question mark hangs on the legality of such dumping, what makes the pain even more hurtful for the 60-year-old widower is the reality that he is not even counted among the “affected people” and received no compensation since the road does not pass through his land, skirting above the cliff face behind his land.

The construction of a link road from Ranka near Rai Gaon to Rey Khola Road is underway and Mr. Rai’s only land-holding which measures around half a hectare falls below this road alignment at Lower Barbing. The road-cutting work has now reached above Mr. Rai’s plot, and in the fortnight that earth-movers have been at work above his house, he has lost everything to the debris pushed down the cliff on to his land.
Mr. Rai, a Tuberculosis patient on MDR medication at present and with two school-going children to look after, had an orchard of 90 orange trees which, in the last season [December 2010] had earned him around Rs. 35,000. Where he had his orchard, now he stares at a mountain of debris and dust.
Also on this dry land, Mr. Rai used to grow broom [Amliso], ginger and seasonal vegetables.
“I used to earn between Rs. 800 to 1,000 every week selling vegetables,” Mr. Rai said.
All that is now past. Tonnes of boulders and loose mud have swamped his orange orchard and vegetable fields.

Fresh debris which crashed into Mr. Rai's home while this
reporter was at the spot on 10 Feb, Thursday.

Even his two-storeyed ekra mud house has suffered substantial damage from the debris which has crashed into it. The house is too unsafe for habitation any more and Mr. Rai has moved into a neighbours cowshed along with his two school-going children.
“My milching cow will also now die because the fodder I had collected for the dry season is now buried under the boulders,” he said.
Mr. Rai is in a daze, unsure of what the future holds for him. Someone has told him that PMGSY works do not have a clause for compensation payment and thus far, the contractor in question has not visited the affected area.
The only hope that Mr. Rai now holds on to is an assurance received from a supervisor at the work site. “The supervisor has assured that my losses will be looked into,” he shares.
He is also now toying with the idea of approaching the elected representatives of his area and the concerned authorities to work out a solution for him.
What he is dreading is the approaching monsoons, when the clouds of dust which the constant dumping is causing will turn into wayward mudslides and obliterate whatever little is left of the land.
Anyone who has been following road constructions will notice that this is not a rare case.
The SDM [Gangtok], Dr. AB Karki, when contacted to understand what rules govern dumping of this kind, informed that such dumping is flagrantly against the rules.
“Contractors are required to cart away the debris and dump it only at authorised sites. This cost is included in the work estimate and is completely unauthorised. In fact, when it comes to PMGSY projects, extra care is required because the scheme does not include a compensation clause for such damages, because as per rules, such dumping is not allowed,” the SDM explained.
Now to see how Mr. Rai’s situation is improved.