Indira Babaji Jadhav, a 74 year-old war widow suffering from cancer, is still fighting for a piece of land, nearly 40 years after she applied for it.
Despite the recent order of the Bombay High Court directing the State government to give her agricultural land free of cost, the State sent her a letter asking her to shell out Rs. 12,000 for measuring that land. After Ms. Jadhav approached the court again seeking relief, the government told the court on Thursday it had decided to waive the fees.
“When the old lady is suffering from fourth stage of cancer, and undergoing chemotherapy for it, she is being made to run around to get the land,” advocates Avinash Gokhale and Mayuresh Modgi, appearing for Indira Babaji Jadhav (74), said.
During the last hearing, the court had rapped the authorities for their apathy and slapped a penalty of Rs. 75,000 on the erring officials. It had directed the State government to allot her 10 acres of agricultural land free of cost within two months.
The government had also been asked to allot 300 square metres of residential land within six weeks, at the ready reckoner rate of 1998. That amount was directed to be deducted from the penalty amount of Rs. 75,000, to ensure that Ms. Jadhav did not have to pay a penny for the land.
But within a month of the order, the State authorities again sent Ms. Jadhav a letter asking her to pay Rs. 12,000 and then remain present at the land measuring office in Khed with identity proof. After receiving the letter, she filed a civil application seeking relief. When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, the government took a U-turn, and said it had waived the fees for her. It also said that Rs. 45,000 had been deposited in her account.
Indira’s husband sepoy Babaji Jadhav was martyred in the 1965 Indo-Pak war. The then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, sent her a hand-written letter appreciating her husband’s courage. Many highly-placed Army officials too sent her appreciation letters.
She was pregnant when she was widowed. After she was delivered of a still-born baby, her in-laws threw her out of house. She took up odd jobs to support herself, and in 1971, applied for agricultural and residential land, according to the existent government policies.
