The grim reaper

 

 

Chandan Singh Banjara’s story is one of never-ending struggle. The land mafia has been eyeing the western Uttar Pradesh farmer’s four-acre plot for 16 years. All he seeks is justice. The peasant is a defeated man today. He wants to end his life.

Running from pillar to post has taken its toll on his health – and morale. A resident of Yahiyapur village of Muzaffarnagar district, Banjara is burdened with a debt that runs into several thousand rupees. He does not have the means to pay up – what he earns is barely enough to feed a family of 11. To make matters worse, he has been handed an electricity bill of Rs 1 lakh. He is at his tether's end.

But suicide is a culpable offence. He attempted suicide several times in the past only to survive. After one such abortive bid in front of the district magistrate, he was jailed for 14 days. When the term ended, he refused to walk free. “I got two square meals a day in jail,” says Banjara. “Outside I had to go hungry more often than not.” The police physically carried him back to his village. Banjara is not taking any chances this time around. He has appealed to the President of India for permission for himself and his family to commit suicide.

Banjara's troubles began in 1985, when under a scheme started by the then government, he took Rs 10,000 as loan to dig a tube well. Within five years, he returned Rs 5700. Then, the Janata Dal government led by V.P. Singh announced a waiver of all agricultural loans below Rs 10,000. A government official demanded a bribe of Rs 2000 to put his name on the waiver list. Banjara refused to pay. Consequently, the officer did not put his name on the list.

Banjara then received a loan recovery notice from the block development officer that asked him to deposit Rs 12,384. He was shocked out of his wits. Unable to pay, he had to spend 14 days in police custody. The illiterate Banjara thought the jail term meant automatic waiver. He did not receive another recovery notice, so he beliecved the worst was over. Three years later, some people arrived without warning to take possession of his land. He was told that as he had failed to repay the loan and interest, the government had auctioned his land to one Harbir Singh for a paltry sum of Rs 90,000. This was on July 19, 1994.

A rattled Banjara asked Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) for help. Prompt action was initiated. Some locals chased away the men who had come to grab his land. Since then, the BKU and locals have kept the goons at bay. Banjara clings on to his land but by the proverbial whisker.

Desh Pal Singh, state vice president of BKU, says, “In such cases the government first pastes a notice on the house of the defaulter and announces the auction in the village. It also places a corrigendum in newspapers. But none of this was done. The land was auctioned for Rs 90,000 whereas the market rate at that time was Rs 15 lakh. The present value of the land is Rs 50 lakh.”

Banjara has tried his best to get the anomalies corrected. In the last 10 years, he has protested umpteen times in front of several ADMs and DMs. On January 4, 2009, the then Commissioner RP Shukla ordered the city magistrate Amarnath Upadhyay to investigate the matter. The city magistrate found that block level officers had flouted norms while auctioning the land. The copy of the investigation report is with TSI.

The report states, "The circle rate of the land was Rs 1, 60,080 and it was sold to repay an outstanding amount of Rs 12,384.50. The decision to sell of such a huge piece of land to repay such a paltry sum creates suspicion. The amount could have been recovered by just selling off the crop that was standing on the land... it was also found out that the land was auctioned just on paper.”

The Commissioner asked the farmer to repay the outstanding loan within one month and reclaim the land. “The land should have been returned without any fine. Instead, the government asked Banjara to pay Rs 60,000 though his loan had been waived,” says Rakesh Tikait, spokesperson of BKU.

It was impossible for Banjara to pay Rs 60,000 at such short notice. The locals pooled in some money and the rest was arranged through a fresh loan from the market. His friend Yogender Singh says, “With an interest rate of 5 per cent per month, I borrowed Rs 50,000 from a trader for Banjara. The monthly interest is being paid by the members of BKU.”

And it did not stop there. Even after the repayment, the officers kept delaying the transfer of the land. Months passed. In the meantime, Harbir Singh managed to bring in a stay order from the Allahabad high court. Banjara’s land still isn’t his. The electricity bill of Rs 1 lakh has aggravated his situation. Although the connection of his tube well was snapped years ago, the officers managed to send him a bill of the last 10 years.

Banjara does not know who the President or the Prime Minister is. But he is aware of the authority wielded by these posts. He has sent several letters seeking their intervention and demanding justice. However, his mails, as well as his call for justice, remain unanswered.