Uncertain future, Old Vaddem settlers look at rising dam level -III

Uncertain future, Old Vaddem settlers look at rising dam level September 3, 2012 Uncertain future, Old Vaddem settlers look at rising dam level Over 25 families, who have been living at Vaddem for over hundreds of years, were left unharmed as the dam water didn’t inundate the area. They now dread that raising the height of the dam would forcefully displace them, leaving behind their source of income--sugarcane cultivation. Part III of the Selaulim saga…. SHWETA KAMAT shweta@herald-goa.com SANGUEM: Every passing day, the people who have been living at Vaddem, even before the Selaulim dam was built, live in uncertainty. Old Vaddem was an area left unharmed because the dam water didn’t inundate it. Now, residents apprehend that a rise in the water level could force them to relocate. They fear they are next in the line to be shifted out from their ancestral land. Rohidas Phaldesai, who started a makeshift restaurant on the roadside at Vaddem, spoke of how they are neck-deep in trouble because of the surging water level. “The water has come next to our houses. If the government raises the height of the dam further, we would be the sufferers,” he said, adding that all families here are old settlers who wholeheartedly accepted the new settlers coming as part of the rehabilitation. “Rehabilitation colonies are little away from our village. They are at a safer place, but we run the risk of being relocated,” Phaldesai, who lives with his three brothers and an old mother in a small house, said. Locals from Old Vaddem disagree with the way government speaks of rehabilitation and compensation. “If there is a joint family in one house then it is calculated as one unit and if one family has a house and a hut, it is calculated as two,” a young college-going boy said, refusing to be quoted. He suggested the state government work out an equitable compensation distribution package depending on the number of people living in each family. While the old settlers are wary that they will have to be shifted elsewhere, the fate of people who were rehabilitated is similar. “The government gave plots of 10,000 square metres to each family. But there are 150 such plots which have already been submerged,” Umesh Gawade, a local said. “This shows how the government planned the rehabilitation. The plots which were given for rehabilitation are inundated again,” he explained. The Old Vaddem people have no faith in the way government rehabilitates the displaced people. “We have seen what has happened to others who shifted here. We will also be thrown somewhere, forcing us to fend for ourselves,” another local, who claimed that his family was the first to settle at Vaddem, said. http://www.heraldgoa.in/News/Main%20Page%20News/Uncertain-future-Old-Vaddem-settlers-look-at-rising-dam-level/63980.html