Tales of Prosperity of the Beneficiaries: Buldhana Part 1

After willingly consenting to giving their land for the Samruddhi Project, the various landowners from 10 districts executed their land deals with the MSRDC. Once the landowners received the compensation amount from the direct purchase scheme in their respective bank accounts through RTGS, how and where is the money is now being utilized? This is the first part of a two-part series of some “Samruddha” stories – meaning “Tales of Prosperity” of some of the beneficiaries in Buldhana.

Jitesh Deshmukh of Chaygaon village in Mehkar taluka and Ballu Bodkhe of Fardapur village in Buldhana district are among the many beneficiaries of the Samruddhi Project.

Jitesh Deshmukh owned a total of 12 acres of farmland in Chaygaon. His family consists of him, his mother, his grandmother and a younger brother. Jitesh lost his father in an accident four years back, consequently Jitesh was left with the responsibility of the entire household. When his father was alive, Jitesh, who was completing his education, was never much involved in the farm work. However, after the passing away of his father Jitesh got involved in the farming activities, and was simultaneously working a job. He would cultivate soybean in the kharif season and gram in the rabi season and harvest a good yield round the year.

Everything was going well, until one fine day Jitesh came to know that a big highway called the “Samruddhi Mahamarg” would be passing through his farmland. The proposed highway was going to pass through many such farmlands, the owners of which were protesting against the scheme. Jitesh too was one of the protestors. However, he came around after he received full and proper information about the project from government officials and village communicators. Soon, the land area of his farm was measured and the sale deed was prepared. Jitesh’s family received a good and appropriate compensation for the 4.5 acres of land out of his 12 acres of farmland which was used for the Samruddhi Mahamarg project. Jitesh had decided to invest a part of this compensation into buying a new and bigger piece of land, and accordingly bought a piece of land admeasuring 8 acres. He tells us that he wants to implement modern techniques of farming on this new piece of land. He wishes to cultivate vegetables by the shade net method, and also wants to get into the milk business. His younger brother is completing his education, and Jitesh has kept aside some amount for the same. He has also taken out a life insurance policy for his mother. Similarly, he has kept aside some money in the bank in the form of a fixed deposit.

Ballu Bodkhe of Fardapur village has a similar story to Jitesh. Ballu has a piece of farmland admeasuring 4.5 acres. Ballu would cultivate sugarcane crop, as well as gram and wheat in his farm. The income from farming was decent, but Balluji supplemented it with a milk business. 1.5 acres of his land out of a total of 4.5 acres will be used for the Mahamarg project. Ballu, too initially opposed the project, but eventually came around as he found out more about the scheme. Now he has become a strong supporter of the Bodkhe-Patil Samruddhi Mahamarg Project. He has received a good compensation for the sale of his land in the Samruddhi Mahamarg project, which he has utilized to purchase a new piece of land admeasuring 3 acres. Ballu tells us that he had already decided that he would be utilizing the compensation amount to buy a piece of land in place of the one he had to give up for the scheme. He has kept aside some money with which intends to utilize the balance amount to construct a permanent house.

Likewise, thousands of beneficiaries from the rest of the districts are looking forward to a brighter future because the Samruddhi Mahamarg Project. Click on the link below to view the life changing stories of the beneficiaries from Buldhana district.