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Maniram Dhidhi, a small farmer in Tilda block of Raipur district in Chhattisgarh, never gave a second thought when a chit fund company agent approached him with a promise to double the amount in five years. He had big dreams to fulfill and sufficient cash at his disposal.
In his mid-thirties, Maniram is now a shattered man. He deposited a major chunk of money that he received from selling his land for a limestone mining project to a chit fund scheme. The land has gone away and so is the chit fund company. For the last one year, there is no trace of the company that operated from a small office in the block headquarters, some 20 km from the village.
Maniram’s family owned over five acres of land in the village that was demarked as a limestone mine by the state-run Directorate of Mining. The 1,700-acre mine with production capacity of 4 million tonne per annum had been allotted to UtraTech cement. The project is interlinked with company’s integrated cement plant.
The company didn't directly purchase the land from villagers. “Instead, it had engaged middlemen who had been purchasing land from the people,” deputy sarpanch Tokanendra Gaikwad said.
After the partition of assets, Maniram got 1.25 acres of land that he sold for Rs 11.50 lakh in 2012. He deposited Rs 8.50 lakh to “Olympus” chit fund company that promised to double the amount in five years.
“Last year I went to the company office in Tilda and requested for pre-mature withdrawal but they refused,” Maniram said. Later, the company closed its office.
Maniram is not the only victim. In Murra village that houses a population of 3,000, over Rs 3 crore was invested in chit fund companies. The cheaters had meticulously planned the operation. Soon after the villagers were paid money for their land, they deputed agents from the village itself and diverted the amount.
The villagers are helpless now as they are hesitant to lodge police complaint against agents, who are from their own village.
“The police is taking stringent action against the chit fund companies and has booked a few directors also,” Inspector General of Police G P Singh said. The police would take action once the villagers lodge a complaint, he added.
Having lost money and land, the villagers are now left in a lurch. They are not entitled to get employment in the project as UltraTech had not procured land through the land acquisition route and escaped the compensation plan.
The company did not respond to the queries sent through e-mail on the issue.
“Since the land had not been acquired by the government, the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) policy will not apply for the project affected people,” state’s revenue secretary K R Pisda said. The matter is between two private parties and the government cannot intervene, he added.
Out of the total 689.048 hectare, only 30.59 hectare is government land.
Toran Gilhare, a medical practitioner and sarpanch of another affected village Moheranga, is waiting for the worst. "Not crop, chit fund would not be the cause for farmer deaths here," he said.
