Ground Report: SBI auctioned 28 acres of land of a Dalit farmer of Bhopal, the family made these allegations against the bank officials!

Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh wrote a letter to the State Scheduled Caste Commission, said that there should be a high-level investigation into the conspiracy of the bank officials.

Ankit Pachauri

Bhopal. 28 acres of valuable agricultural land of a Dalit farmer family in village Garethiadangi of Bairasia tehsil of Madhya Pradesh was auctioned. The land on which their life depended has now been snatched away from them. Shantibai Mehar, who is a member of this victim family, has tears in her eyes when she tells The Mooknayak, “We were farming on this land for generations, this is our house, where our family of 17 members lived. But with the connivance of the bank officials, our entire land was auctioned.” Her voice reflects helplessness, when she says that her son Narmada Prasad pleaded in front of the bank, offered money, but their land was still taken away. Now they don’t even have a house left.

Shantibai further says, “We have lived in this place and will die in this place. The bank officials conspired and auctioned our 28 acres of land. Our family was surviving on it.”

Know the whole matter?

Garethiadangi village is located in Berasia area, about 45 km from Bhopal. Where a Dalit family had taken a loan of Rs 4,86,000 for a tractor in the year 2008 from the Berasia branch of State Bank of India and Rs 5 lakh for farming under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme in the same year. Half of which the family had paid. Due to not being able to pay some installments due to family problems, the bank declared their loan account as non-performing asset (NPA). After this, the bank auctioned their 28 acres of land to recover their loan.

The victim family alleges that their land worth crores of rupees was auctioned at a price much lower than the market price. Currently, the price of land in that area is around Rs 20 to 25 lakh per acre, but the bank has auctioned it at a very low price, which raises the suspicion that the bank officials are tampering with the process. Narmada Prasad of the victim family told The Muknayak that they complained to the government including the bank officials but no hearing took place. He said, “Even after depositing half the loan amount, our land was snatched away. This shows that the bank officials and the auctioning agency as well as the buyers have conspired to buy the land worth crores at a pittance. Our family will keep fighting for justice till death.

Questions on transparency in auction

In this case, former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has also written a letter to the government including the State Scheduled Castes. Singh has alleged in his letter that the auction process is completely suspicious and lacks transparency. The information about the auction was published by the bank in those newspapers whose circulation is very low, while it was not given any place in the major newspapers published from Bhopal. He said that this entire episode is a matter of serious investigation and a conspiracy has been hatched by the bank officials to sell the land of the Scheduled Caste debtor farmer family for a pittance.

The Dalit family did not get protection

Digvijay Singh also alleged that the government Many schemes are run by the government for the protection of the Scheduled Castes, but in this case no help was given to this Dalit farmer family. Pointing towards the state government and the central government, she said that the families of the Scheduled Castes are given special facilities for loan waiver or rehabilitation, but in this case, instead of providing protection to the farmer family, their land was auctioned.

The Commission sought a report from the state government

The State Scheduled Caste Commission, taking serious cognizance of this matter, has written a letter to the state government asking it to conduct an investigation and submit a report as soon as possible. The Commission said that the transparency of the auction process and the role of the bank officials involved in it should be investigated. Also, it should be ensured that the rights of the Scheduled Caste families are not violated.

Farmer’s demand: The auction should be canceled and an opportunity should be given to deposit the loan

Shantibai says that the auction of her land should be canceled and she should be given an opportunity to deposit the remaining amount of the loan along with the penalty. She says that the land is her only source of income and selling it will badly affect her family. In this regard, The Mooknayak representative called Ashish Tiwari, manager of State Bank of India branch, Berasia, several times but could not talk to him.

Constitutional View

Violation of Article 19(5): There are provisions for the protection of land rights of Scheduled Castes under Article 19(5) of the Constitution, but these rights are being violated. The lands of Scheduled Castes are being snatched through illegal means, and they are being ignored in rehabilitation schemes. This is a clear violation of constitutional provisions, due to which the economic security and land rights of the deprived, exploited classes are in danger.

This case is not only an issue of the rights of the Scheduled Caste farmer family, but also raises serious questions on the banking system and administrative transparency.

Courtesy : Hindi News