Gaibandha Santals get their paddy
The Santals in the district's Gobindaganj on Thursday night finally received their paddy harvested from Shahebganj sugarcane farm, though their leaders had refused to receive it earlier in the day, demanding the removal of barbed-wire fence and withdrawal of cases filed against the indigenous men.
Rangpur Sugar Mills authorities on Thursday began harvesting Aman paddy grown by the Santals on its land amid no response from the community following the High Court order lifting restrictions on collecting their crops.
On the first day, they reaped crops on two and a half acres of land out of 45.5 acres with a combine harvester.
Of the Aman field, crops on 30 acres of land ripened, and the remaining would need 10 more days to ripen, said Abdul Awal, managing director of the sugar mills.
Abdul Hannan, Gobindaganj upazila nirbahi officer, said a 17-member team, led by Burna Bas Todo, community head of Madarganj, and also a member of the Shahebganj-Bagdafarm land recovery committee, received 26 sacks, each contains two maunds of paddy, on behalf of the Santals in the presence of two magistrates.
“We would hand over all the paddy [to the Santals] as soon it is harvested."
“Earlier, we did not want to take the harvested paddy from the mills authorities. After discussions with the community leaders, we agreed to receive the crops. But our movement will continue for the Santal families' rehabilitation on the land from they had been evicted," said Todo.
The mills authorities yesterday deployed two combine harvesters to reap the paddy. They reaped crops on seven more acres by the harvesters and handed over 112 maunds of paddy to the Santal leaders.
They also employed labourers for harvesting the paddy quickly, as they would plant sugarcane stems on the fields. The plantation period will end soon, said the mills managing director.
The district administration has found that there are homeless Santal families in Madarpur and Joypurpara villages. It has also got 14.26 acres of land in Katabri union where four cluster villages would be constructed soon to rehabilitate the homeless Santal families, said Abdus Samad, deputy commissioner of Gaibandha.
The Santals want the removal of barbed-wire fence erected on a stretch of two kilometres of the mills land from where they were evicted on November 6, said the DC.
Alleging that the 1962 land acquisition agreement has been breached by cultivating other crops instead of sugarcane, the Santals intensified their movement for returning to their forefather's land in Shahebganj sugarcane farm for the last two years.
In July, some 1,500 Santal men occupied nearly 100 acres of land of the Shahebganj sugarcane farm, which was acquired by the government in 1952 from their forefathers.
On November 6, a tripartite clash broke out between the Santals, staffers of Rangpur Sugar Mills and police over the eviction of the indigenous people from the disputed land. The clash left three Santal men dead and 20 others, including nine policemen, injured.
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