Farmers of Palasgachi are a politically dejected lot. They have lost faith in all political outfits. Their only and last hope was Mamata Banerjee but even she has betrayed them. Their only ray of hope is the Calcutta High Court which has for the time being prevented the State Forest Department Government from evicting them.
Ask from Ramjivan Sardar, Palash Mali, Asfakur and many others like them and they will tell you about their woes. These are not their real names because they fear persecution from the local Trinamool Congress dons who would “impose fines on us and take away our cattle for opening our mouth in the media.”
The Government gave them notice of eviction in the name of preservation and development of forest land “but we know they will have this land for the land sharks who will open fisheries or poultry … we vote for Trinamool Congress but we cannot give them money … so we are tortured like this.”
“We have been voting for Didi ever since she started her Singur movement in 2006 … we went in hordes to Singur and spent several nights in dharna alongside her … then she was voted to power against an oppressive CPI(M) … but after that it was the same old thing … One who goes to Lanka becomes a Ravan,” says Asfakur.
About 150 families inhabit the area that falls under the Bahadurpur beat of Krishnagar Forest Range. “Our ancestors have been living here for the past more than 100 years … maybe before the Independence … not Government, neither the Congress, nor the CPI(M) evicted us … but now the Forest Department has served eviction notice through the local panchayat,” Sardar says adding repeated letters to the District Magistrate, local MLA, MP and even Abhishek Banerjee have yielded no result.
“Then we even wrote to the Chief Minister in the address of her Nabanna (State Secretariat) office but no response came … now as we were confirmed that no one stands for the poor we moved the Calcutta High Court which has for the time being prevented them from evicting us … but we don’t know till how long this will continue,” says another farmer.
The High Court has directed the Government to grant them land Patta under the Recognition of Forest Rights Act. Though the farmers are filling up the requisite forms to secure landed rights they are skeptic about the Government’s ideas. “We don’t have more money to take the battle till the Supreme Court if the Government preferred to fight further up… or if the government finds out some new ways to harass us,” they say.
“Now you say, we have no jobs because that is stolen by the ministers’ men … we don’t have money to do business … we only had this small bighas of land … if this goes then where do we go,” asks Mali an old man who cannot see without his number glasses and is dependent on his son who in turn is dependent on cultivating a couple of bighas of land.
