One day, I got a call from my father saying someone is flattening our piece of land using a bulldozer. It was raining heavily since the day before night. This place was in the outskirts of the city. I thought a good public leader was involved in clearing the waterlogged areas for the convenience of local people in the area. So they brought a bulldozer to do the job. As an emergency measure, they have the right to do, to prevent the submergence of houses and roads. On the way, I also saw water flowing everywhere. Along with my parents, I went there. Very close to our land saw an intermittent stream overflowing across the road and also flooded several houses in the neighbourhood. My guess was very strong and told my father that some good samaritan is helping people and clearing the water from our land. He told me immediately ‘don’t guess.’ It was raining heavily at that time. There were four people waiting underneath a building under construction. I got back to my senses as I closely saw what they were doing. I asked them who are you to trespass this land, this land we purchased about 32 years back, I said. They asked us to come to their office to discuss. This is a brokers office, who deal with empty plots for a commission. One person with a clean white shirt - a symbol of deceiving people like a clean politician, was the husband of a lady Sarpanch - a publicly elected representative of the village. He is also involved in the business of buying and selling lands. They kept a file with all the layouts of the area. They are showing us a survey number which they want to claim as their own. Our survey number was different, but they were insisting that the place they were levelling is in their survey number. They are asking us to approach the government revenue department to get our land identified. At that time the government was on a mission to survey all the lands in the state and all the surveyors were busy for the next three to six months period. Probably they are in a hurry to use this opportunity for encroaching into the empty lands, as no support comes from the government at this stage. The heavy rains were another opportunity as the people watching their illegal activity would be few.
After a few days, we could bring the government surveyor and in their presence got verified that the particular land belongs to us. Still, after a few days, they tried to level the land again. Finally, we approached the police station for filing the First Information Report. Then they could not justify before the police and did not try to occupy our land again.
When the public representatives themselves stoop down to encroach the peoples land on a day of the flood disaster when they are supposed to rescue the people. Who will save the Governments when the people with the least integrity represent the people. Where is the justice and right to live on this land with peace and security?
