TRIBALS – 2007 - Indian Social Institute

2006 gives rights to those who had been cultivating forest land till December, 2005. The rules ofthe Act are yet to come into force but governments in the country have already issuednotifications changing the date of regularisation of “encroachments.” In Maharashtra, theRevenue and Forest departments issued a government resolution (GR) on April 23, 2007 sayingthe cut-off date was October 25, 1980. Various organisations protested this GR and last week thegovernment agreed to withdraw it. In June, Suzlon, in a letter to the Deputy Conservator ofForests, Dhule, said that in the event that some of the land falling within the leased tract is legallyallotted to the Adivasis for cultivation, both wind mills on the leased land and the Adivasis could“coexist.” The Activists have taken exception to such proposals, saying they must first be givenrights to the forest land. The Dhule Forest Department has acknowledged that the land leased tothe company does have “encroachment” in places. Earlier in May, the district administration, afteran agitation, did agree to set up local committees to verify the rights of the Adivasis on the leasedland. A process was set in motion on May 12 and in 1,600 cases enquiries were conducted, Mr.Dhamale said. However this exercise was stopped on May 22. Now the Minister has said theremaining cases of “encroachment” must be verified by September 11. There should be 300-450cases in which enquiry remained to be held, Mr. Dhamale said. While the new Act was passed toredress a historical injustice, the Maharashtra government, despite having so many laws andnotifications to give the Adivasis their rights over forest land, has chosen to favour companies,says Anand Teltumbde, writer and activist, who was part of a fact-finding team which recentlyvisited Dhule to examine repression of the protestors. The team, on behalf of the Committee forProtection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), also investigated lathi charge at Pangan andMograpada, 70 km from Dhule, where the police beat up villagers and arrested 18 persons. It wasat Mograpada that a huge pit was dug up for a wind tower, drawing resistance by the villagers.There have been repeated agitations for granting land rights to the Adivasis first before land isleased to companies. As a result, notices have been issued to Mr. Dhamale and two othersseeking their externment from the district. The CPDR report also said large scale deforestationwas taking place in the area. (The Hindu 2/9/07)People continue to suffer in tribal areas (6)Bhubaneswar : A whopping Rs 250 crore has been spent over a period of 20 years in the tribalsdominatedblock of Kashipur in Rayagada district. But nothing has been changed. Peoplecontinue to become victims of the wrath of the nature. The outbreak of cholera has not happenedthis year only which already claimed 178 lives in the tribal-dominated area of KBK so far. Asmany as 52 people alone from Kashipur block became victims of this killer disease. Earlier, it hadtaken away the lives of hundreds. The first cholera outbreak reportedly occurred in the recenthistory way back in 1987 in the Kashipur block. More than 200 people died of cholera at that time.They all died just because they were unable to get the proper food stuff and safe drinking water.All were the victims of adulterated foods and polluted water. The tragic incident at that timecompelled the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to made a whirlwind tour to Kashipur. His touropened the floodgate of financial assistance for the development of Kashipur and other backwardregions of the KBK areas. Later, the Centre gave an assistance of Rs 10 crore for thedevelopment of Kashipur. Under the International Far-mer's Development Fund, Rs 106 crorewas released for the overall development of Kashi-pur. A new scheme Orissa Tribal DevelopmentProject was initiated for this purpose. Official sources said, in 1995, Rs 12 crore was providedunder the special assistance scheme of the UNICEF. In 1998 watershed mission programme wasinitiated with the assistance from Germany in 1998. A programme was initiated under the bannerTDH with an assistance of Rs 15 crore. Under the much-hyped KBK and Biju KBK scheme, Rs 40crore has already been spent over the years. But noting has been changed. People have not yetget the minimum needs to fulfil their requirements. In the last five years, many programmes underPradhan Mantri Grama Sadak Yojana, National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme(NREGP), many works have been taken up. But it has not been able to change the lives of thepeople of Kashipur. Kashipur boasts of 1.35 lakh population. Out of it, 62.50 per cent belongs totribal and 19.94 per cent belongs to SC categories. The Kashipur block comprises 20 panchayatsand 498 villages. Out of the 1014 tubewells in the blocks 550 tubewells have been lying defunctover the last several years. This has compelled the tribals to fetch water from the nearby rivulets.The block has only one community health centre and five primary health centres. The sanctioned