The Hindu : National : The rough and tumble of New Harsud

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Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

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National

The rough and tumble of New Harsud

By Lalit Shastri

BUILDING HOPES: A family at work at the rehabilitation centre in New Harsud. — Photo: A.M. Faruqui

CHANNERA-NEW HARSUD, JULY 9. Families can be seen in clustered makeshift shanties along the road leading to New Harsud, a small hamlet which is being expanded to rehabilitate the residents of Harsud, the centuries-old town now facing submergence owing to the Indira Sagar project on the Narmada river.

Leaving behind the new Channera railway station on the Itarsi-Mumbai trunk route in the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh and taking the zig-zag road to enter New Harsud, a group of women was washing clothes and in a dirty pond created by the first monsoon showers. Further down the road, people thronged the bank counters. Most of those awaiting their turn had a common grudge. They said that the banks were short of cash and not in a position to promptly honour the cheques and drafts issued to them as compensation against the acquisition of their property at Harsud.

Beyond the crowded lanes and by-lanes of Channera village stretches a vast piece of land that should have been developed by now as the New Harsud township. At present, an incomplete network of roads, rows of marked plots and electricity poles can be seen.

The few hundred families that have moved to this place are living like refugees and relying on water tankers for meeting their daily requirement.

However, the buildings to house the Harsud panchayat, police station and other Government offices are functioning.

Since it will take a few months more for the Higher Secondary School building to be ready, the Government Boys Higher Secondary School for the Harsud children would begin temporarily from July 15 in the newly-constructed Government Middle school building.

Amardas, a fifth class student who has just shifted to New Harsud with his mother Laxmi Bai, said that he was anxiously looking forward to starting the academic session from July 1 but in the meantime he is busy helping his parents rebuild a home just like other children.

Both the Supreme Court and the Narmada Award make it mandatory for the authorities to ensure that the people being forced to leave their homes due to the Narmada Valley Project should be fully rehabilitated at least six months before submergence. However, in the case of Harsud, along with 120 villages that are also coming under the submergence, the Madhya Pradesh Government has obviously chosen to ignore this crucial aspect. This is explicit from the fact that it had ignored the need to carry forward the task of rehabilitating the dam-affected people on a war-footing. The laxity was admitted by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, at a press conference in Bhopal recently.

As the official June 30 deadline for leaving Harsud coincided with the monsoon threatening to submerge the Harsud town, an emergency arose. However, without bothering about the official deadline a large number of Harsud people are still engaged in demolishing their homes packing their belongings to start a new life elsewhere all over again.

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