Every time when there is a road or railway line or a dam or an airport
An industrial area development
The authorities show the future prospects to the developers
Luring them to invest big sums of money
In regenerating the area into un-believable levels
Nevertheless, there is a small group of people
Who are forced to sacrifice for the cause of thousands!
Authorities set aside a sum to compensate them
Some times, they provide alternate land
But, uprooting the masses from their hopes and past
It’s never an easy task
It’s never done in a fair fashion either
Authorities can just enact ordinance or law
Then send notices in advance
Telling the people to surrender their possessed lands
For the development of the area
Giving fake hopes of jobs and other amenities
Some people might have their dream home
Built with all their lifelong savings
With no choice, but to give it up
Take the compensation and go for finding a place to survive
There are large tracts of barren lands available
But when industrialists wish for a prime land
Authorities make sure that they get it
By the means of laws and sweet offers
Many a time I wonder
How much land they need for starting a factory?
Why they need land amidst populated locality?
When they need mere little area for buildings
They demand huge tracts of lands, which has potential
In the name of future expansions
In the name of industrial development
Authorities lease those lands for neglible price
Or sell to the investors at nominal rates
May be they get commissions for their acts
Many a time, you will find huge tracts of unused lands
Later being sold by the developers with huge profits
Or building un necessary or luxurious projects
That never was there in the original plans
So, is it fooling the people who sacrifice?
But what about the poor people
Who might be earning from farming or
Some other jobs in their own land
Does anyone care about the future of those people?
When the development doesn’t involve
The welfare of the ones who contribute land
It is not development, but mere clouding of tears of despair
Many a time the ones who once lived in towns and cities
Aside the roads and prime financial areas
They had to move away from those areas
To the outskirts, taking their allotted compensations
With a task to recultivate their lifestyle
Without proper amenities
Many a time people get in-hospitable lands
To build homes or to set up farm lands
Some times, they get shabbily built apartments
In exchange for their houses or land holdings
To meet the deadlines, authorities comes up with
Police and other forces with bulldozers to evict the people
Crushing the buildings and throwing away the belongings
It’s nothing but terrorizing the poor with iron fist
When someone refuses to move away from the land
Where they took birth and lived a life time
Asking where we will go and what we will do!
The scenes of kids and elders crying
With the state of helplessness
For these people, many a time politicians
Doesn’t find it useful to help when they suffer
Its fate to be alienated in their own place
All but for the welfare of a majority
One question remains
Is it right to forcefully take the lands of disadvantaged people
When authorities identify location for regeneration
Will they ever identify a location owned by VIP’S?
They won’t.
Instead, they will choose the land where poor people are there
Evicted are those, who don’t have clout among authorities
To have immunity from land acquisitions