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Academic dons shame India on
atricities in tribals
WSN Network
BHOPAL: Indian
officials in tribal countryside continue the policy of pitching
tribals against tribals. A fact-finding team comprising professors
of Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University and activists
have found instances of atrocities on tribals by officials of the
State Forest Department in Harda in Madhya Pradesh.
The team also
inquired about attacks on Tata Institute of Social Sciences
professor Shamim Modi and other tribal residents of Dhega and
Unchabarari forest villages. It found that no gram sabhas, essential
for implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 had been
convened in Harda.
“The forest
officials have set up a team of watchers in each village to prevent
implementation of the Act,” said Prof. Harish Dhawan of
Delhi
University
who was part of the team and added: “It is almost like Salwa Judum,
except that these people are armed with sticks instead of guns.”
The team also
alleged repeated attacks on villagers by police and forest
personnel. Members of the team also alleged that the Forest
Protection Committees formed under the Joint Forest Management
system were pitting tribals against each other.
They demanded
that arbitrary raids on villages and atrocities on tribals be
stopped. They also demanded that the attacks on Prof. Shamim Modi be
investigated by a Central agency against the backdrop of the Harda
situation.
16
September 2009
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