Reena Devi- village Boropar, Sikkar, Barari police station, District Katihar, Bihar. Reena Devi primarily reports on issues related to gender, sexual violence, and religious minorities Reena Devi has always had large aspirations. As a young girl, she often experienced gender discrimination. She frequently heard about women in her community who survived sexual violence. Reena was discouraged from attending school and…

Reena Devi

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This is a complex humanitarian issue, a case of the missing link between the welfare schemes and its beneficiaries.

In the Katihar district of Bihar state, 60 families are staying in shanties next to the State Highway. But they have to be relocated, because of the Highway expansion project, and that is the issue.

The Indian Government, under the ‘Bharatmala’ project, aims to establish road connectivity to towns and rural areas across the country. Out of the proposed 83,000 km+ highway construction, 3300 km has already been constructed. In these kinds of expansion, a Special Land Acquisition Officer or Collector would fix compensation as per the market value. It is complex in this case because these families have no landholdings, i.e. landless.  

Bihar Government under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) is providing financial assistance of Rs. 1,20,000 to the rural people for the construction of new homes. But these 60 families do not have the land to build their own homes, and hence are deprived of availing of the benefits of the PMAY-G housing scheme. To solve this issue, Bihar Government has prepared a complete list of such people from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data. They will provide assistance to eligible beneficiaries under ‘Mukhymantri Vaas Sthal Kray Sahayata Yojana’, a scheme to assist financially to buy land. 

As misfortune would have it, these families' names are not listed in this beneficiary list. Hence they are living in the extreme stress of being forcibly evicted without any compensation. Hope the people watching this video will share about this issue and authorities will find a suitable mechanism to rehabilitate these poor families soon.