59 ironsmith families to get a permanent shelter after 5 decades of wandering in Banswara

Udaipur : They had been wanderers for nearly 55 years. Their predecessors had lived at the commercial colony in Banswara city in the 60s but these people were made to leave their homes in 1999 when the encroachments were cleared. They settled in Sharda colony but in 2006 they were ousted again. The tragedy of Chiklligar families from the iron smith community in Banswara as wanderers , straying from one place to another with their little children and young women finally has come to an end when the administration melted at their misery.

Some 300 persons of this community would soon find a permanent roof over their heads as the Lodha panchayat has sanctioned them free land for homes to be build under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana. These families are presently living near a canal in a temporary settlement over which a high tension line is passing by. Monsoon have been wrecking havoc on these families whose homes consist of low walls of mud bricks and roof of shack and plastic covering supported by wooden poles. These families were recently granted support under the Pradhanmantri awaas yojana but since these people didn’t have a land of their own, they didn’t knew what to do. Gram Panchayat members of Lodha realized their woes and initiated a proposal to allot free land for their homes. Collector Bhagwati Prasad immediately sanctioned the proposal and on Friday these 59 families were given allotment letters of a total 6.03 bheegas of land for their homes that would be constructed under the centre government’s scheme.

The families are elated and excited to know that soon they would have a permanent roof of their own. “ Our people have been suffering for years and living a wretched and insecure life. Two kids were washed away by the canal waters while one had died due to the high tension electricity line running over their settlement, in the recent past” said Shyam Patwa, one of the beneficiary. “ Even birds have a nest to rest, but our condition had been overlooked for years. Now that they have granted us land, we hope to live a peaceful and secure life” said Radha Devi, one among them.