[Reader-list] MNIC in Mainstream Media: CNN/IBN and Delhi Elections

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear all,

I came across this routine report on the CNN/IBN website as part of the run
up to the Delhi elections. CNN-IBN correspondent Aasim Khan's report
suggests how MNIC is not even recognised by government departments. The
dream of a national identity card does not seem to have any impact on this
village called Pooth Khurd, near Delhi. I used to visit Pooth Khurd quite
regularly between 2005-07. I particularly remember how the whole village was
decked up when the cards were first introduced in 2007. The roads were lined
up with lime powder and a shamiana was erected in the local school. The
registrar general of India distributed the cards to villagers. Mishro, a
middle aged woman of the village was given the first ever MNIC card. When I
spoke to Mishro, she recalled members from the local Collectors office
coming to her home and asking for her husband to come over for the ceremony.
Mishro's husband who was to be given the first card. But he was working in
the local factory, hence could not come to the ceremony. It was perhaps then
decided to give the card to Mishro. Mishro said, 'woh toh duti pee gaya hai,
isliye kard mujhe mil gaya'.

Regards

Taha

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http://ibnlive.in.com/news/poll-picture-from-delhis-hinterland--blog-now/78952-3.html

New Delhi: The countdown to the Delhi polls has begun. As residents of the
Capital prepare to vote this Saturday, CNN-IBN brings you a special series
on the different kinds of people who have come to call this bustling city
home. Over 40 per cent of Delhi's land is registered as a rural area. For
many of the voters living in these villages, their land is their only stake
in the city - land they are now having to give up for roads, malls and
flyovers. CNN-IBN gets the poll picture from the Capital's hinterland. Read
on...

Dalel Singh shows us his prize possesion: 10 acres of land in an ancetral
village that dates back to the 14th century. Pooth Khurd is infact a fertile
wheat belt not in Punjab or Haryana but within the national Capital.

Delhi is home to over 100 rural villages. They are not slum clusters, but
places where properous Jat farmers still harvest their crops each year. But
an expanding metropolis is slowly closing in .

Dalel Singh says, "This land here was also part of the agricultural land
once. Now the State Industrial Development Corporation (DSIC) has taken it,
and they will be acquiring more land very soon."

Farmers like Dalel Singh have made millions selling their land bit by bit.
But despite the prosperity of the villgers, Pooth Khurd remains a world
apart from the prospects of the city.

While a majority of youth here have given up farming, many of them still
fail to study beyond school finding employment in land dealing among other
things.

A resident of Pooth Khurd, Rambir says, "No one likes to study, we are
attached to our land."

This situation weighs heavy on the elders like Dalel Singh. Once this land
is gone, it's all over for the next generation he says.

It's a familiar story of land acquisition, but what is striking about these
cases is that they are happening within the boundaries of the national
Capital - a place where real estate is at a premium. And that is perhaps one
reason why farmers are no longer happy with what they are being offered.
Even the Government is offering as much as Rs 50 lakh per acre.

At Kisan Sabhas in the Alipur and Khanjawala rural blocks in North-West
Delhi, men and women demand that they be given permanent royalties on the
acquired land.

Khanjawala Kisan Sabha member, Naresh Dabas says, "Let them build the Metro
but not over our bodies."

Ironically residents of Pooth Khurd were the first in India to get a special
MNIC - Biometric Identity Card - by the current government.

A MNIC cardholder, Umesh Dabas says, "They said it was like they have in
America."

But what was promised to be a green card to new opportunities has failed to
make any difference to their lives.

"People in governnment offices don't even know this card exists," says
Umesh.

Villagers in Pooth Khurd might have the largest land holdings in the Capital
and the bustle of the city may be getting closer every year, but at a social
level many remain just as far as they were 600 years ago.