Dorbar ostracized family, police unmoved

Shillong, October 7: In a clear violation of  human rights, a traditional village dorbar in Ri Bhoi district had ostracized a woman, her family and few villagers who had strongly objected to the move of the village leaders to allegedly take away the agricultural land belonging to the family and converting it into a village forest.

The victim had filed an FIR with the police, but strangely action has not been taken against the village leaders.

Slodian Kurbah, a farmer by profession and a single mother of seven children from Umtangi village around 20 kilometers from Umsning in Ri Bhoi district was ostracized by the village dorbar on July 3, 2013, after she refused to part away with her agricultural land where she cultivate‘ginger’ to support her family.

The village dorbar had also allegedly destroyed and damaged the family’s agricultural land measuring over 2 acre and the ginger produce on June 4. The loss was estimated to the tune of Rs 2 lakhs.

Kurbah had filed an FIR with the Umsning police outpost against the village authority on June 28, of which action was never taken till today.

Ironically, the village dorbar at its meeting held on October 5, has decided to also ostracize some of the few villagers who had strongly objected to its move.

“They (village dorbar) had passed a decision prohibiting me and my family from using the village drinking water, road, and other activities because I had dared to expose their illegal decision and filed a complaint against them,” Kurbah told reporters at a news conference on Monday.

Kurbah said the leaders had all of sudden turned against her just because she had refused to her land to them which they wanted to convert  it village forest. She said, “The land belong to me and I had registered it with the Syiem since 2004 and recently in 2013, I renewed the land documents.”

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Kurbah complained how she can her land just like that  when the land is the only thing she has got for livelihood and to support my family.

Saying that there is no sense of security anymore for the family as the village heads have even threatened them, Kurbah said, “Even after three months of filing the FIR, nothing has been done from the police side,” adding “We are hopeless because the people we expect to get help from have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to our request.”

A former Umtangi village secretary, Benedict Jarain and four other like-minded villagers out of pity decided to support the woman and have requested the village dorbar to reconsider its decision and to take the land documents into account.

“We were thrown out of the dorbar shnong just because we dared challenge the decision of the village authority,” Benedict Jarain told reporters.  He said that those who decided to support Kurbah felt that the decision to just throw a family outside of their own land is nothing but ‘illegal’, ‘unacceptable’ and violation to human rights.”

Jarain questioned , “ Is it wrong for us to help a poor family who are at the receiving end and danger of losing their land, are we wrong to point out and does we not have the right to voice out our concern when a dorbar shnong is not walking the right path.”

The villagers also informed that the Syiem of the area earlier had also passed an order that the Dorbar Shnong cannot in any manner take away the land of Kurbah. “However, till today despite of all these things, the Syiem had not taken cognizance of the matter,” the former village secretary lamented.

According to Jarain, based on the FIR filed against headman Storent Dohtdong and his deputy Johnbiang Sawkmie and others, the police did came to inspect the land and access the damage but it is surprising there was no action taken and those who filed the FIR were never informed about the status of the case.

Jarain informed that on behalf of the family, they had also approached the district administration seeking its intervention but it did not fructify.-By Our Reporter