Erosion in Panchanandapur

Malda, March 28: A four-member bench of Calcutta High Court will be here on Sunday to deliver on-the-spot verdicts on appeals made for compensation by villagers who have lost their property to erosion by rivers.

District judge and member-secretary of the legal aid services Amit Chakraborty said the court would be held in the classrooms of Malda College.

The high court team will consist of Justices Kalyanjyoti Sengupta, Indira Banerjee, Prosenjit Mondal and Parthasakha Dutta.

The Malda district magistrate, superintendent of police, chief medical officer of health, officers of relief and rehabilitation departments and the district inspector of schools have been asked to be present during the hearing.

According to the district judge, 1,550 erosion-affected families of 40 villages in Manikchak, 40km from here, had appealed to the National Legal Services (NLS) in Delhi in December 2006. The NLS had asked its counterpart in Bengal to arrange for mass hearing.

Sources said the demand for compensation had ranged from Rs 50,000 to Rs 29 lakh. For example, Anarul Haque of Gopalpur village has asked for Rs 5 lakh. The Ganga had devoured his residential house as well as agricultural land in 1989. Paban Mondal who had also lost nine-bighas and his house has demanded Rs 9 lakh.

Both Haque and Mondal who have to feed twelve and seven mouths respectively are now paupers, who eke out a living as labourers.

In their appeals to the NLS, the erosion victims claimed that their children were being deprived of education, healthcare and minimum nutrition.

The secretary of the Ganga Bhangon Nagorik Action Committee, Tarikul Islam, said: “We had waited for long. But the Bengal government seemed indifferent. We had no other option but to appeal to the NLS for a solution.”

According to Islam, the erosion by the Ganga at Manikchak has become an annual feature since 1987. Although thousands become penniless every year, government aids are not forthcoming. Many families are forced to spend nights under the open sky on the embankments or in mango orchards.

Islam said more than 4,500 families at Panchanandapur in Kaliachak II block were suffering a similar plight. They have also appealed to the NLS for intervention.

The district judge said the Panchanandapur cases would be taken up in the next phase. “Sunday will be a test case,” Chakraborty said.