Over 150 Dalit families of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, had been fighting a battle for their survival for the last 15 years. It is interesting that an industrial house went to the courts to challenge the ceiling law of the State of Uttar-Pradesh but kept completely silent on its own unconstitutional activities, with the help of local goons and administration when it brutally displaced the poor people from their habitat. The Industrial house had not only used all the methods provided to him by the ‘constitution’ of free India, but also used all other methods to send a wave of terror among the poor people.

The matter went to the court and the first major judgment came some 10 years back by Allahabad High court, which imposed a fine of Rs. 1,000,000 on the Industrial house and ask the displaced people to be rehabilitated. However, things never changed at the ground level. The same fascist methods were used against the people.

It was difficult to bring things to the Supreme Court because the people were betrayed by the human rights activist who pretended to work for them. Many of them used these hapless victims as a tool to increase their ‘TRP" ratings. Unfortunately, as it often is in the civil society organizations, such things occur. After much difficulty, the case was brought to the mainstream and a hearing started. The case was mishandled from the very beginning and hence at the end, these victims were just a party who were not allowed to intervene. The state was asked to file a reply.

The Industrial house M/s Escorts Farms Ltd, lost the petition. The Supreme Court justified the ceiling on its land and asked the Uttaranchal government to act immediately and take control of the land. There was no specific order meant for the victims and yet when the ceiling act was justified, the very meaning of it was that the land needed to be redistributed. Since 150 people were admitted as party by the court itself, it would have been wiser for the government to act on it and distribute the land.

Nothing changed at the ground. We are told that the authorities did not even have the copy of the court’s order which was provided by the victims. Now the government has taken control of a small portion of land, about 300 acre out of 1162 acre of land which needs to be controlled. We are also told that the government has given the land to a private person. On the other side, the lost company is still using the legal tools for its own benefit.

The people who were rejoicing after the court’s judgment last year in February are back to gloom. They are feeling a sense of betrayal. We don’t understand what is the meaning of a court’s order or what is a contempt of the court. Lawyers don’t come easily unless they feel that the case would give him a big name or money. For activists like us who have been with such a movement for so long, it is a much worse condition. Despite all your efforts in life, you feel cheated by the system as people don’t trust you and you have nothing to show them or to the outside world.

The whereabouts of 150 families is still not known. About 90 families are living in despair. Some who were just on the margins migrated to different places to save themselves from humiliation and violence, in addition from persistent hunger. Some others died in the absence of work as the powerful community declared an economic embargo on them. Since they did not die all together, we working for hunger don’t feel them as a violation of right to food.

Similar problems exist with the Belillious park evacuees. We as civil society organizations have not been able to provide any help to them. I can understand that it is not the duty of human rights organizations to serve the people, yet for the people at the ground it does not matter whether you are a human rights organization or a charitable organization. How long will we wait for the authorities to act? The thick skin of our political class is getting thicker and the time has come for the human rights defender and people working on the hunger issue to redefine their strategies as how long they would depend on authorities to act.