Caste-based violence: Plans afoot to rehabilitate Mirchpur Dalits

Deepeneder Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, March 9

Nearly seven years after caste-based violence caused damage to social ties, Dalit families of Balmiki community of Mirchpur village would soon leave their birthplace for good as the state government is chalking out a rehabilitation plan for them.

Sources said on the directions of the state government, the district administration had identified four places to relocate these families, who had been demanding rehabilitation claiming that they felt unsafe in the village. The district administration would prepare a report of these locations near Hisar and Barwala town, after which the state government would zero in on one of these.

About 220 families have given their consent to get rehabilitated after the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Kirshan Kumar Bedi held a meeting with them on January 31. Bedi is reported to have prevailed upon the Chief Minister to go ahead with the rehabilitation plan.

Satyawan, a Dalit youth of Mirchpur, said they were promised 100 square yard plots at the new place under a scheme meant for BPL families.

Sarpanch Satywan Singh said they strove for peaceful coexistence and not for creating separation among communities. “The government may be taking a decision but the panchayat was not in favour of such a move,” he added.

Deputy Commissioner Nikhil Gajraj said the process was on to identify land for Mirchpur residents. He said the land on proposed locations was owned by the state government so it would be a hassle-free process to transfer pieces of land to the beneficiaries, if the government decided so.

Notably, the caste-based violence that took place in Mirchpur on April 21, 2010, led to the death of two Dalit persons — a disabled girl and her father. Later, several families migrated from the village to live in makeshift houses at a farmhouse and demanded rehabilitation.

Devigarh Punia, a village 2 km away from Barwala, was also developed by rehabilitating Dalit families of Guhna village in Kaithal district in 1988. Kartar Singh, a village panch, said the state government developed the village for them after they migrated following a land dispute with another community in their native village.