At the grassroots
RAOSAHEB Chintaman Patil was a shetkari (farmer in Marathi) who was living past his prime. At the turn of the 21st century, he had inherited a plot of land abutting a National Highway from his father. He had cultivated the land as the years went by. His wife, Anjalibai, who recently passed, ran a juice stall on a portion of land and served a neat glass of OJ (orange juice) to passersby.
Life was taking its usual course until he got to know two decades later that the Union government (sometimes known as the Central Government) was going to acquire a portion of his land to widen the National Highway. On paying a visit to the local zilla office, he was told that the Union government’s adhikari— called ‘the competent authority’— had published a notification in a local newspaper about this acquisition under some Highway Act.
A good samaritan provided a copy of the newspaper containing the notification which he went through carefully. The Act was The National Highways Act, 1956. A survey took place a few months later under Section 3B of the Highways Act on the land; boundary lines were drawn up on half the land; a declaration under Section 3D was passed in which that half was to be acquired and the competent authority determined the compensation amount under Section 3G.
Raosaheb had no issues with surrendering half the land. After all, it is not like his three sons had any interest in it. According to Raosaheb, the eldest son, Kamlu was a chapter (slang for chalu), the middle child, Pappu was bavlat (clumsy in Marathi) and the youngest son Chintu was a 6 foot 4 inches gadhav (ass in Marathi).
