More than 100 persons including women and children belonging to tribal and dalit communities are forced to live in open as their homes were demolished by a contractor in Damoh district for broadening of the Pathariya – Damoh link road at Mara village on April 10.
Houses of nearly 22 families of dalit and tribal communities were demolished without proper notice when most of the people had gone for work. The old persons, children and women left behind barely managed to gather their belongings before their homes were razed to ground.
Pathariya Janapad Panchayat CEO Rajiv laghati informed that among the families that have been displaced, 14 belong to Saur tribal group, five families belong to OBC and two belong to SC. The demolitions were conducted by Bridge Gap Construction Company holding the contract for broadening the road, he said, that the affected families have been given land. However, he denied of any cash compensation. Mara village sarpanch Sandeep Dubey, however, said that not all the families have been given the land. “Half of the families are still remaining. Meanwhile, most of them live in temporary sheds of polythene. it is not true that proper notices were not given,” he said.
The CEO as well as the sarpanch said that they will persuade the contractor to provide some relief. “Even Rs 5000 would be a great help for the families. They would at least buy better polythene sheds,” the sarpanch said.