Farmer family trapped between UP-Uttarakhand, waiting for compensation for 29 years
The property dispute between UP and Uttarakhand may have been resolved by both the governments, but the compensation of the Nautiyal family of Dehradun is still embroiled between the two states. For the last 29 years, the farmer family has been fighting for compensation after giving land for setting up a government tubewell.
Govind Ram Nautiyal, a resident of Umaidpur East Hopetown in Premnagar and a soldier of the Azad Hind Fauj, gave his land to the government in 1993 for the purpose of irrigation in the village. After this the department installed tube well and assured that compensation would be given in a year.
When this did not happen, Govind started correspondence. Wrote around the offices, wrote letters to the then CM of UP, but no hearing took place. When Uttarakhand was carved out of UP in 2000, he hoped that now he would be heard in his state, but his part was disappointed.
Time passed and Govind Ram Nautiyal passed away a few years back. Now his sons Sureshanand, Kailash Chandra and Vijay Prakash are fighting this battle. Kailash Chandra and Vijay Prakash are doing farming after retiring from the army. He says that despite being an ex-serviceman, he is not being heard.
Records not given: Govind Ram’s youngest son Vijay Prakash filed RTI in this matter. It is alleged that the tube well section Dehradun did not give complete information. The department accepted that in 1994 the erstwhile tube well section, Saharanpur, installed tube well-77 DD in Umedpur, but it is not providing the records of land acquisition and compensation.
After receiving incomplete information from the tube well section, Nautiyal appealed to the Information Commission, on which hearing is going on. Do not listen to instructions: The Nautiyal family has a thick book of hundreds of correspondence made from UP to Uttarakhand government in 28-29 years. Letters were written to all the irrigation ministers in UP and Uttarakhand from 1994 till now.
These ministers had also given instructions to the officers, but the officers did not follow them. In 2002, the then Irrigation Minister Shoorveer Singh Sajwan and in 2004 the then Minister of State Sadhuram wrote letters to the Chief Engineer and the Executive Engineer, instructing them to get compensation. It is alleged that the officers did not pay attention even after this.
This matter is quite old, in which the investigation of records is going on. Payment will be made after the situation is clarified. Recently, a spot-inspection was done on behalf of the department.
JS Negi, Executive Engineer, Tubewell Division-Dehradun
