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Govt to examine if farmers eligible for flood relief

The amount of the damage was assessed by the farmers and the government can have its own assessment. But, based on it the farmers should be fairly compensated

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The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday asked the state government to probe if 35 tribal farmers, of Banaskantha District (BK), are entitled to get compensation for the flood which took place in July.

Citizens Resource and Action Initiative CRANTI's had moved a public interest litigation (PIL) on behalf of the tribal farmer families of Keralu and Sekra villages of the district.

The petitioner's advocates, Dimple Thaker and Dixa Pandya, told the court that standing crops of these farmers were damaged by the heavy floods this July.

Though the people are entitled to the compensation, neither any survey, nor any payment was made.

Even the representation made to the district collector and other authorities, no response was sent by the authorities. These farmers have suffered Rs 91 lakh damage and the state government should pay them compensation, according to the plea . The amount of the damage was assessed by the farmers and the government can have its own assessment. But, based on it the farmers should be fairly compensated, the plea added.

Opposing the petition, government pleader Manisha Lavkumar, who submitted a revenue record, said apparently these farmers were doing agriculture activities on government land. The land is not in any of the farmers' name, and that could be the reason why they were denied compensation. Some revenue cases are also pending in this regard before the district collector over the ownership issue. These land comes under the new tenure.

The tribal farmers' contention is that their forefathers were allotted this land by the government after independence. They were rehabilitated to these villages in 1948. Since then, these people have been cultivating here. In 1976, then district collector sought revenues for doing any agricultural activities.

Later, the farmers' names were removed from the land records and given to the government. However, since the farmers were the first inheritors of the land, they could not be denied compensation.

After hearing both parties, the first-division bench directed the government to examine whether the farmers are entitled for the compensation. The matter would be heard after two weeks.

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