Tribal leader Mahato has insurance policy worth Rs.1 cr: Police

Kolkata, Oct 1 : Chhatradhar Mahato, the arrested chief of a Maoist-backed body in West Bengal’s Lalgarh, has an insurance policy worth Rs.1 crore (Rs.10 million) and he recently bought a house in Orissa, a top police officer said here Wednesday.
“Mahato has confessed during interrogation that he has an insurance policy worth Rs.1 crore and he has also given two premiums for it. He also bought a house at Mayurbhanj area of Orissa recently,” West Bengal Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh said at a press conference.

Mahato, head of the tribal body People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) that was at the forefront of the violent agitation in Lalgarh, was arrested Saturday for his links with Maoist guerrillas.

“We came to know that he (Mahato) had close connections with top-rung Maoist leaders like Kishen-Ji and other linkmen. We’re verifying all the information he provided to the police,” Singh said.

According to the police officer, Mahato had gone to Jharkhand in January to hold talks with Maoist leaders.

“We’re probing everything related to the arrest. The police will verify everything he said,” Singh added.

Posing as journalists, police had sneaked in on Mahato and arrested him from Birka near the headquarters of Lalgarh block in West Midnapore district.

The tribal leader had been eluding police ever since he went underground after the central and state governments launched a joint operation to flush out the Maoists.

The rebels had virtually made areas around Lalgarh, about 200 km west of Kolkata, a “free zone” since November last year.

READ MORE - Tribal leader Mahato has insurance policy worth Rs.1 cr: Police

INDIAN FOREST RIGHTS BILL:- IS THE NEW BILL A DISASTER FOR FORESTS OR TRIBES?

Let me first state about the Forest Rights Bill and the names of the members who helped in passing it in the Indian Parliament. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2006, as passed by Lok Sabha, India.
Shri P.R.Kyndiah, Minister of Tribal Affairs, moved motion for the consideration of the Bill.
The following hon’ble members took part in the discussion:-
1. Shri Kanjibhai Patel 2. Shri Nabam Rebia 3. Shri Mahendra Mohan 4. Shrimati Brinda Karat
5. Dr. Radhakant Nayak 6. Shri Abani Roy 7. Dr. Barun Mukherjee 8. Shri Syed Azeez Pasha 9. Shri B.S Gnanadesikan 10. Sri Mangani Lal Mandal 12. Shri Bhagirathi Majhi
The bill was passed in the Indian Parliament with some amendments to the Recommendations of the JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee)
Let us first have a look into the Forest Act of 1980 with amendments on 1988:
(A Portion of the act is given below: If there is any mistake, please do let us know)
1. Short title, extent and commencement:
1. The act may be called the Forest(Conservation) Act, 1980.
2. It extends to the whole of India except the states of Jammu and Kashmir.
3. It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 25th of October, 1980.
Restriction on the dereservation of forests or use of forest land for non forest purpose
Nothwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force in a State, no State government or other authority shall make, except with the prior approval of the Central Government, any order directing -
(1) that any reserve forest (within the meaning of the expression “reserve forest” in any law for the time being in force in that state) or any portion thereof, shall cease to be reserved;
(2) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be used for any non-forest purpose.
(3) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be assigned by way of lease or otherwise to any private person or any authority, corporation, agency or any other organization not owned, managed or controlled by the Government.
(4) that any forest land or any portion thereof may be cleared of trees which have grown naturally in that land or portion, for the purpose of using it for reafforestation.
Explanation – For the purpose of this section, “non-forest purpose” means the breaking up or clearing of any forest land or portion thereof for -
(a) cultivation of tea, coffee, spices, rubber, palms, oil bearing plants, horticulture crops or medicinal plants;
(b) any purpose other than reafforestation;
but doesnot include any work relating or ancillary to conservation, development and management of forests and wildlife, namely the establishment of check posts, fire lines, wireless communictions and construction of fencing, bridges and culverts, dams, water holes and trench marks, boundary marks, pipe lines or other like purposes.
Analysis of the effect of the recent bill passed:
Some has the view that the tribes, consisting about 8.4% of the population, have been denied access to benefits of land and forest by both mideaval and moderate states, which encouraged landlords to settle on fertile agricultural tracts. It was also thought that this was done to gain complete monopoly over the forests. But at a later stage there were lots of protests by the forest dwellers over access to forest products for their living.  All these pressures forced the Indian ruling class to set up welfare mechanisms for the tribal people. It was then stressed by India to set up mechanisms that would democratise community institutions and allow tribal people to shape their own destines thorugh the creation of fifth and sixth schedules on the Indian Constitution. It was due to large scale displacement faced due to large projects initiated by the State showed that, the poorest tribal people were victims rather than subjects of mainstream economic development. It was during that time that organizations of neo-Gandhian and radical environmental groups persuaded a movement against the displacement of the tribal people.  These movements, which were a series of local-area-level struggles for land and forest access, argued for an alternative form of forest management, whose main principle would be customary access and community control.
This naturally meant that the state would need to loosen its hold over forests and create space for informal systems of management, which earned the name ‘community forestry’.

Now, this was quite unacceptable as these may lead to some vested interests in some forest products and can lead to large scale deforestation.  The challange became more stiffer as on one side the state have to ensure access to land and forest resources for providing livelihood security and two; to democratise forest management in a manner that counters corporate-led development.
It was during that time the Forest Rights Bill was introduced in the Indian Parliament.
Now the min problem was; many tribal people who couldnot prove that they were living in forests before October 25, 1908 , had been termed as “encroachers”, (Forest Conservation Act, 1980). This led the state to notice an eviction order to these people in May, 2002. This led to an widespread agitation not only among the tribals but also among some representatives of the people. It was that time that the Left parties along with the tribals pressurized the Government to expand the scale and scope of the Bill. It was then the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was set up to look into the Bill.
JPC recommendations in short:
1. Cut-off date for the settlement of rights should be extended from October 25th, 1980 to December 13, 2005, the date on which the Bill was first tabled in the Parliament.
2. Inclusion of non-scheduled Tribe “traditional forest dwellers” within its ambit as long as they have lived in the forest for three generations.
3. Attempt to introduce an independent and participatory scientific process, by which ‘critical wildlife areas” would be identified and relocated from them, if found necessary on mutually acceptable terms.
4. It did include paragraphs to strengthen the democratic process and the rights of the pople by making the gram sabha the “final authority” in the settlement of local rights.
5. New provisions to recognize the rights of displaced and rehabilitated people.
6. JPC recommended the inclusion of the right of multiple land use for people doing shifting culitivation, the recognition of the rights of communities to conserve their forests , and the removal of the land ceiling 2.5 hectares for land rights.
7. It recommended that the people’s right to development be recognized through this proposed act.
Some limitations are : It didnot take into account issues relating to the ecological health of the resource and fringe area development.
But the Government and the Environmentalists also have their own concern; that is any legislation on forest rights, therefore needs also to have clear provisions for the protections of forests and their biodiversity. So, the Government changed some portion of the recommendations of the bill and passed it in the Indian Parliament.
The most intense battles between wildfires and Adivasi rights advocates have been over the Bills provision relating to protected areas (PAs). It is undeniable that such areas have been the single most important step towards halting the rapid decimation of India’s Wildlife.
Without them many of our Species would be History. Perhaps many have remembered the stories of the Indian Rhinocerous and the Asiatic lion, among others.
On the other hand, it is also true that many of the protected areas are inhabited by communities; some living before even the protected areas were notified! Now, the only solution is to make them also participate for conservation and also recognise their basic rights to survival. Some other provisions that could enhance conservation considerably have largely been overlooked. Communities will have now have the right to “protect, regenerate, or conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting or conserving for sustainable use.”
But here lies the problems. Some NGO’s like Kalpavriksh, Vasundhara etc have shown that there are thousands of community-conserved areas (CCAs) in India, 10,000 community forests in Orissa, forests protected under tribal self-rule in Central India, catchment forests conserved in Rajasthan, Nagaland and Mizoram, and so on, all together covering lakhs of hectares. Most of these are Government forests, with hardly any Government staffs present. Most of them doesnot have legal backing and are open to DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION BY OUTSIDERS. Many vested interests may lead to pushing outsiders into the forest premises and thus can demand the facilities of the Forest. It can lead to destruction of the sanctity, quiteness and beauty of the forest as well as loss of biodiversity. India has lost much forests and the world needs forests to save ourselves. If we don’t; our survival will be at stake. Forest are also the home to hundreds to species and also are carbon sinks. There are also lots of usefulness of forests which are known to everyone. Thats the reason the Government’s concern need to be given importance.
So, according to me; the only solution is; we need a lot of awareness programs about forestry and also should aware the original dwellers the importance of forests. Its only together we can save forests and also its tribes and thus a stop another disaster happening…
Writer:
Mr. Mainak Mazumder

READ MORE - INDIAN FOREST RIGHTS BILL:- IS THE NEW BILL A DISASTER FOR FORESTS OR TRIBES?

Tata Steel shifts 'zero date' for Kalinganagar plant to Dec

After jumping several targeted timelines for resuming construction work for its 6 million tonne per annum greenfield steel project at Kalinganagar in Orissa's Jajpur district, Tata Steel has finally exuded confidence to start the work on the plant by December this year.

“There is a group of 100-odd anti-displacement people who have held up construction work on our steel plant. However, of late, the district administration has shown resolve in persuading these people and we are going to commence construction work on our steel project positively by December this year”, BK Singh, vice-president (Orissa project) of Tata Steel told reporters here.

Singh admitted that Tata Steel had not been able to resume construction work on the proposed steel plant according to its targeted timelines owing to resistance from the anti-displacement people belonging to the affected villages.

“Tata Steel has already shifted 740 out of the 1,195 families and we are in talks with the rest. The company can kick off construction work on its steel plant even without shifting all the families but displacement being a sensitive issue, we don't want to thrust anything on the affected people,” Singh said here, on the sidelines of a CII meet on Rehabilitation & Resettlement

Stating that the gory incident on January 2, 2006, which resulted in the killing of 14 tribals,. is still fresh in the mind of Tata Steel, Singh said company preferred to move forward through building bridges of trust and understanding rather than coercion.

Asked if Tata Steel was contemplating to offer shares to the displaced people, Singh said, “We don't think that offering shares is a good option as the locals in Kalinganagar hardly understand the intricacies of shares and the stock market.”

It may be recalled that during his last visit to Orissa, HM Nerurkar, executive director (India and South-East Asia), Tata Steel Ltd, had announced that the company expected to start construction work on the Kalinganagar plant by middle of August this year.

Tata Steel's Kalinganagar steel project has been marred by delay of over four years that has scaled up its project cost. The original project cost, which was Rs 15,400 crore, has now gone up to Rs 21,000 crore.

The steelmaker had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government in November 2004 for setting up the integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar.

The protest against Tata Steel’s project is spearheaded by Visthapan Virodhi Jana Manch (VVJM).

VVJM was formed after the death of 14 people in a police firing on January 2, 2006 when the tribals clashed with the police while opposing the construction of the steel plant’s boundary wall.

Meanwhile, Tata Steel had placed orders for construction equipment worth Rs 6,000 crore for the steel plant.

The company had also started offsite steel fabrication for hot strip mills in an area leased out from the state government-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) near Jajpur Road to reduce the construction time for the project.

READ MORE - Tata Steel shifts 'zero date' for Kalinganagar plant to Dec

A new dimension to tribal culture

Tribal women perform jhumur

Cultural performances in Assam’s tea gardens and among the tea community have always revolved around their traditional jhumur, a group dance performed by young men and women to the beat of the madol (drum).

The tea tribes, who were bought as labourers, mostly from central India and eastern India during the British Raj, had formed an identity of their own.

Although many organisations had been claiming that they were working for the assimilation of tea tribes with the greater Assamese society, very few practical steps were visible in this regard till date.

In a bid to take an inch in this direction, a cultural evening of classical music was organised by the management of Dikom Tea Estate last week at the staff club of the garden in Dibrugarh district.

The teachers and students of Chaulkhowa Music College — an institution for education of classical music in Dibrugarh — performed different programmes like borgeet, sitar recital, Kathak and Sattriya.

“Our basic aim is to create a platform on which we could see people from the tea community getting specially attracted to our rich culture, like the Sattriya dance as they should know what it is all about. Some of the youths of the garden had now approached us to organise more such programmes in the future”, Bhaskar Phukon, an assistant manager of the garden, said.

Dilip Ranjan Borthakur, the principal of the music college, said, “This is indeed a very good step; this kind of a programme can really help us in spreading our own rich culture.

Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih and (below) the cover of the book

Success by default

Prasanta Bhagawati and several others like him had become tea planters by default. After hundreds of monkeys descended on their paddy fields and started destroying standing crops, tea emerged as the only alternative. That was in the nineties.

This year, 100-odd small tea growers in the Naduwar area of Sonitpur district have set a record by producing 12 lakh kg of green leaf, the highest production by small tea growers in any area of the state.

“Our tea bushes are new. As such, the drought did not have much impact on them,” said Bhagawati, the secretary of Naduwar unit of small tea growers’ association.

He revealed that monkeys from the nearby hills had swamped the entire Naduwar area and wreaked havoc on the farmlands. “The menace went out of control in the early 1990s,” Bhagawati added.

However, it was Arshaf Nasir who found the answer to the problem. He took to tea plantation since the simians were not attracted to the tea. Since Nasir started the first tea estate — North Tupia — in 1992, there was no looking back.

Today, there are over 100 small tea growers in the area and all doing good business.

The monkeys, too, have returned to the hills since then.

Footnote

From Japan, the land of cherry blossoms, haiku, a poetic form, has found a new language in the abode of the clouds, Meghalaya.

Renowned Khasi poet Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih has come up with the first compilation of haiku in Khasi, bringing to the state the delightful style of Japanese poetry famous the world over.

The first ever book of haiku in Khasi language was released by the president of the Khasi Authors’ Society, Prof. S.S. Majaw.

Prof. Majaw lauded the achievement, saying he had made an invaluable contribution to Khasi literature by introducing a new genre into it.

He said that such “a supervention of novelty” was the most needed thing in Khasi literature at the moment in order to inject freshness and vigour into it.

Nongkynrih said that haiku as a poetic form had originated in Japan and became well established in that country in the 16th century.

Its traditional form is always that of a poem of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.

“Haiku contains two parts. The first part is called the setting, which could be a location, an occasion, the weather, the time of day, a set of circumstances and some kind of action. The second part is the body, containing haiku’s main image, which relates to its subject and action,” he said.

“Haiku encourages us to appreciate the little, neglected, irrelevant things we routinely edit out of our busy lives and accords the same importance to the smallest object and event as we would give to a human being,” he added.

READ MORE - A new dimension to tribal culture

Community panchayat bans Dalits from entering fields

Muzaffarnagar, Sept 15 : A community panchayat has banned the entry of Dalit men and women in fields after a member of the community filed a police complaint accusing an upper caste of rape attempt here.

Dalits have been debarred from cutting grass and carrying out other labour work in Wazirabad village of the district.

The panchayat took the decision in response to filing of an FIR by a Dalit man alleging that Vinod Kumar tried to rape his wife on September 10.

The panchayat though decided that Vinod was being "falsely" implicated.

Tension prevails in the region but DSP Nitin Tiwari said police are taking precautionary measures in order to prevent the disruption of law and order.

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500 rural self-employment training institutes in the offing

With Centre's plan to launch National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) by the end of the year, the Ministry of Rural Development has decided to set up 500 Rural Self-employment Training Institutes (RSETI), almost one in each rural district of the country.

The Centre has already granted approval for setting up 110 such institutes in 14 States. The institute will train rural people keen to set up their own business and help them in raising fund.

The decision to establish RSETI was taken after realisation that despite availability of funds there were few takers for self-employment schemes and money were either being swindled or lying unspent in the States. It was also found that the political leadership has also done little to draw the people to take advantage of such schemes.

The creation of the institutes would help run the poverty alleviation programmes and equip the district with personnel to fulfill the enormous task, an official said.

According to sources in Rural Development Ministry, in the first phase such institutes would be opened in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.

Central funds of Rs 15 crore have been released for setting up 32 such institutes in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.

These institutes aim at providing "dedicated" training to the people belonging to below poverty line (BPL), in an effort to bring more BPL households in the network of swarojgari (self-employed) groups. The proposed NRLM aims at reducing poverty in rural areas through promotion of diversified and gainful self-employment and wage employment opportunities.

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Brush with tribal tradition

LOHARDAGA: Lodher Oraon is on a mission to revive traditional tribal art and values with his paintings. As a child, he grew up in the lap of nature and had as his painting tools stems, sand, grass, wild flowers and leaves. There was no canvas, paint or brush. But nature unfurled its storehouse to little Lodher to choose his palette and tools from. This is how it all started in an obscure village called Nagjua, a km north-east from the Nagjua railway station on the Lohardaga-Ranchi rail rout under Bhandra block in Lohardaga. First it was a hobby, later a profession and now a mission.

Son of a tiller, Vijay Oraon, Lodher has always been rooted to mother earth and it's only natural that he would want to resurrect the traditions of the people of the soil.

In his childhood, he drew inspiration from his uncle who would paint pictures on the outer walls of houses during marriages. This wall art is known as Gohbar' in Jharkhand. The painting on the wall signifies there's a marriage ceremony in that particular house.

"I was a like a shepherd who would spend hours by the river with his cattle. I would draw on the sand by the river with the help of sticks," said Lodher who did primary schooling in his village, high school in Nadia Lohardaga, Intermediate in Marvari College, Ranchi, and then joined Ranchi College where he did his graduation, then PG in History and Kudukh, a tribal language. He did his B Ed from Chakradharpur and has recently appeared for NET.

His paintings of tribal gods Sarna and Chala are visible in tribal homes. As programme officer of Jan Shikshan Sansthan of Human Resource Department, he lives in Ranchi presently. Although his paintings have been appreciated at the national level, he is yet to receive any official recognition by way of awards.

He crafted 18 idols in collaboration with artist Kanchan Kerketta under the directions of noted tribal artist Henry Kerketta. The idols depicted tribal life of all the five tribes of Jharkhand: Oraon, Munda, Ho, Santhali and Khadia. These works are in the Gumla Museum. Apart from creating life-size statues of Jharkhand freedom fighter Telanga Khadia, Kargil martyr Birsa Oraon's relief work and Samadhi art, Lodher has recorded folk songs. He has also written several poems in tribal languages.

Noted tribal artists Dilip Toppo and Henry Kerketta helped him to get noticed at the national level. "Dilip Toppo helped me to get the work of making cutouts and hoardings that fetched me pocket money in my days of struggle," said Lodher.

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Call to end tribal woes

Left leaders advise better implementation of welfare schemes

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Tribal girls present a dance during the convention in Ranchi on Saturday. Picture by Manik Bose Ranchi, Sept. 12: CPM leaders today demanded that the government address the problems of tribal youths, especially the growing problem of unemployment among them. Leaders and members said that the government should pay sufficient attention to better the economic situation of tribal people in the country by ensuring proper implementation of welfare projects. “Due to continuous inflation, the purchasing power of tribal households has gone down. The Union and the state governments should ensure corruption-free implementation of welfare projects,” said Rabindranath Hembrom, the tribal affairs-cum-forest minister of Bengal. Hembrom was addressing tribal youths today at a national convention organised for them here by Democratic Youth Federation of India, the youth wing of CPM. Representatives of tribal organisations from various states across the country, including the northeast, took part and discussed issues concerning land reforms, corruption in development schemes and the public distribution system. “The state has been able to give land documents to only a few people till date under the Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act. Tribal youths should press the government for proper implementation,” Hembrom said. The leaders also demanded that historians give due attention to the contribution of tribals in the freedom movement while writing history books. “Leaders like Sidho Kanho, who were the first to take up weapons against the British in 1855 before the Sepoy Mutiny, have not been given their due,” said Ramanika Gupta, a Delhi-based writer and former MLA. The meet also discussed other tribal issues including language and displacement. Among those who took part in the meet were DYFI national president Sriram Krishna, national general secretary Tapas Sinha and state leaders J.S. Majumdar, Praful Linda, Prakash Biplab.

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Man sentenced to life imprisonment for raping Dalit

Gonda (UP), Sep 13A man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court here for raping a Dalit girl.

Special Judge SC/ST Act held Ballu guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment yesterday.

According to prosecution, Ballu raped the Dalit girl in Baluha Tulsipur village on November 5, 2001, and a charge sheet was filed against him by police.

READ MORE - Man sentenced to life imprisonment for raping Dalit

Solar lights to illuminate tribal areas

There is finally light at the end of the road for tribal hamlets in Mumbai. The municipal corporation has started making use of solar-run streetlights to illuminate arterial roads and lanes of these hamlets.

Even as electricity keeps the urban pockets in most parts of the city lit for 234 hours, families residing in most tribal belts in the city, also referred to as Adhivasi Padas, are forced to walk in the dark.

"There is always a fear of a snake or a scorpion bite in dark streets," said Madhavi Ghorat, a tribal, residing in Kombdipada at Aarey colony. Solar lights have now begun illuminating these areas.

The civic standing committee on Tuesday approved a proposal to install solar lights for the roads and lanes in 12 hamlets located at Aarey colony in Goregaon. Civic officials said 330 solar lights will be installed in these areas in a phased manner. The project will cost the BMC Rs1.29 crore.

The municipal corporation has already installed solar-run streetlights in six tribal belts in Gorai. Tribal areas in Bhandup have also been recently illuminated by solar lights.
Civic officials said that plan was to use solar empowered lights wherever possible. The municipal corporation has also decided to appoint three contractors--one each for the western and eastern suburbs and the island city-for installation of solar-powered streetlights.

While the initial plan is to install such solar lights in narrow lanes and unlit areas, the BMC has plans to put up such lights all across the city. "While the initial cost of setting up a solar light is about Rs30,000 per pole, the maintenance is low. The corporation spends Rs80 crore annually on streetlights. We are hoping that the solar lights will reduce the burden substantially." He added that the change will also help save electricity.

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Dooars clash over tribal bandh call

JALPAIGURI: Dooars was rocked by violence on Wednesday as tribal and non-tribal mobs clashed at a number places over Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parshad's (ABAVP) call for an indefinite school bandh.

ABAVP has called the bandh demanding the recruitment of Hindi-speaking teachers and the immediate transfer of non-Hindi-speaking teachers from all Hindi-medium schools in the Dooars and Terai region.

The day's worst flare-up was reported from the Duramari Bazar area of Jalpaiguri's Dhupguri block. ABAVP activists first tried to shut down a school in Duramari forcibly. The non-tribal residents of the area retaliated and drove out the ABAVP picketeers.

But within some time, the tribals returned in force and raided the villages armed with bows, arrows and other traditional weapons. The locals, too, confronted them with lathis and stones and the area turned into a battlefield. Several

people were injured in the incident, with eight persons landing in hospital.

A huge police force rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. They had to fire at least 10 rounds in the air to disperse the mob after a lathicharge and tear-gas shelling failed to have an effect.

In Gairkata area, the non-tribals blocked the road to protest against the ABAVP bandh. Students and their guardians sat on the road for the entire day, bringing all traffic to a standstill. A vehicle carrying ABAVP activists was also caught in the jam. Hearing of this, a large number of ABAVP activists set out for Gairkata from different tea gardens. But, police arrived before them and took up position on the road, preventing a confrontation between the two sides. Those blocking the road ransacked two police vehicles, demanding government intervention to have the schools opened.

Initially, ABAVP had decided to keep only Hindi-medium schools under the purview of the bandh. But the plan was changed to shut all schools.

The tribal body held its central committee meeting at Nagrakata in the evening, where it was decided that the school bandh would continue at any cost. "If required, we will also close down all the government offices
in the Dooars and Terai," said Rajesh Lakra, secretary of ABAVP's Dooars-Terai committee.

READ MORE - Dooars clash over tribal bandh call

Mob attack policeman over death of Dalit

Allahabad, Sep 10 (IANS) Hundreds of people blocked traffic and beat up a police official in Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad district Thursday to protest the death of a Dalit man after he was allegedly beaten by police during a routine vehicle check Wednesday night.
Inspector B.B. Tiwari suffered serious injuries when the mob beat him up. He is admitted in hospital.

According to reports, a Dalit man, Nandlal, was returning from a relative’s village on a motorcycle when the police stopped him.

Munshilal, a relative, alleged: “I was accompanying him. An inspector called Shail Kumar stopped us. He demanded money from us and on our refusal some constables accompanying him started beating Nandlal with sticks, and he died.”

However, the police denied the claim.

“In a bid to escape the police, the motorcycle slipped and Nandlal fell into a ditch adjacent to the road. It is probably due to the injuries that he died,” Shail Kumar claimed.

Deputy Inspector General Chandra Prakash told IANS: “The matter will be probed and those found guilty will be punished. Besides, action will also be taken against those who attacked and injured the policeman.”

“It was a routine vehicle checking drive and the exact reason of death is being investigated. The post mortem report is awaited,” Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brijlal said.

READ MORE - Mob attack policeman over death of Dalit

Orissa tribals stage massive rally against illicit liquor shops

Laxmipur (Orissa), Sep 9 : Armed with bows and arrows, tribals took out a massive rally on Tuesday in Laxmipur region of Orissa, against illicit liquor shops operating in the area.

Dressed in red and wielding red flags, the members of the Maoist backed tribal outfit Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangh (CMAS), marched from Narayanpatna block till Laxmipur to wage a war against illicit liquor shops.

The Adivasi Sangh been involved protest against in forcible acquisition of lands from non-tribal farmers for past three months.nother motive behind the rally was to motivate the tribals residing in Laxmipur to join their outfit.

"This organisation is of poor tribals and we are inviting all the tribals to join us. We are staging an anti-liquor movement. The upper class people (non-tribals) take advantage of the innocent tribals. We condemn this and we will break all the illicit liquor shops. We also demand the release of our two members, arrested by the police," said Nachika Linga, Leader, CMAS.

The rally took place in the presence of the administrative authorities and the police.

"There is no tension, till now it is peaceful, by god's will it will remain peaceful only," said Gadadhar Parida, Collector, Koraput.

The Adivasi Sangh also demanded release of two of their members who were arrested by the Laxmipur police on charges of destruction of liquor units in the area.

The administrative authorities are wary of the CMAS extending its hold in Laxmipur as well.

The CMAS is now ridden with violent factionalism, one belonging to Bandhugaon and other to Narayanpatna.

Both the groups have been involved in forcible acquisition of land from the non-tribals in a bid to restore the land to the tribals.

In the past three months, they had acquired around 3,000 acres of non-tribal land in both these regions and distributed it amongst the tribals. The unrest had also prompted many non-tribals to flee the region.

READ MORE - Orissa tribals stage massive rally against illicit liquor shops

Bid to end tribal land disputes

KORAPUT: Officials have taken steps to settle disputes over tribal land in Koraput district. To begin with, they have registered about 4,200 cases of tribal land measuring 5,800 acres, reportedly being occupied by non-tribals.

The state government had chalked out an action plan to settle the land disputes in the district two months ago, when tribal unrest over loss of tribal land to non-tribals in Maoist-dominated Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon blocks was at its peak.

According to the plan, all cases involving transfer of tribal land to non-tribals under Orissa Schedule Area Transfer of Immovable Property (OSATIP) Regulations (1956), were examined and genuineness of such transactions made till September 7, 2005 verified. It also includes listing of registered sale deeds where tribal land is transferred to non-tribals, preparation of pattas involving 6,942 acres of land under the Recognition of Forest Right Act (2006), officials said.

"The OSATIP regulation were amended in 2000. According to it, those who have purchased tribal lands are required to file a declaration in support of their claim over the tribal land they have purchased. But it was not implemented in Koraput. People illegally purchased and occupied tribal lands for which the problem has now aroused," sub-collector (Koraput) Rajesh Patil said.

Patil said 5,800 acres of tribal land has been spotted in Koraput sub-division, which consists of nine blocks, including Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon, out of the 14 blocks of the district. Apart from suo moto examination of documents, announcement was made over radio and a special format was circulated through anganwadi workers in rural areas through which the tribals, those who had any land related problems were urged to apply. "The settlement of cases will start during the second half of September. The land will be returned to the original patta holders," Patil said.

A large number of people in Koraput sub-division live in villages that have no house site pattas as the land is unsettled and identified as Grama Kantha Prambok. In a special drive, house site pattas will be given for basti land as per norms in some villages in the first phase. "Pattas will also be provided to tribals cultivating on government revenue land for long," he said.

READ MORE - Bid to end tribal land disputes

Bangladesh frees six Indian tribals

Agartala, Sep 8 (PTI) Six Indian tribals who had crossed the Indo-Bangla border in Sabroom sub-division of South Tripura district two and half months ago have been returned by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), police said today.

BDR pushed back six Indian tribals including two women who had mistakenly crossed the Indian territory and entered Bangladesh on June 21, they said.

Border Security Force personnel received them at the Muhurighat checkpost in South Tripura district.

The tribals complained that Bangladeshi villagers detained them, beat them up and then handed over to police.

However, they told the police that BDR and Bangladesh police behaved well with them.

Tripura has 856 km-long porous border with Bangladesh.

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Tribal takeaway

MARIANNE DE NAZARETH

THE HINDU Artifacts displayed in Triblaa.

If you enjoy indulging in the country’s colourful handicraft, then Triblaa is the way to go

The welcome gate to Triblaa, an art and craft exhibition at Safina Plaza is a stunner. The innovative gate, with its jet black tribal masks on a tan reed mat base, gives you an idea of the craft items on display inside.

Bastar iron craft with an antique finish from Madhya Pradesh, with intricate craftsmanship by the tribals had several buyers.There were also interesting palm leaf engravings which could be used as wall hangings and each told a different tribal story.

Costume jewellery from Chattisgarh priced at Rs. 160 onwards interested several young college girls who found the intricacy of the pieces unusual. And there interestingly-shaped door handles and folk art.

The famous Bankura horse from West Bengal, which is the All India Handicrafts logo was on sale in different sizes. Originally made in terracotta, horses fashioned out of wood were also on sale.

Colourful Banjara bags from Hyderabad in different shapes and sizes had the attention of the women buyers who had sauntered in.

Clutch bags, shoulder bags, drawstring purses… even a little pouch for your mobile, embroidered with mirror work and cowrie shells were all there.

Bangles and paintings

If you love bangles there is one stall dedicated to all some colourful varieties. “The proprietor is the third generation in the business,” revealed Manas Parida the secretary of the Arts and Crafts Exposition, which has its head office in Chennai.

Madhubani paintings, known as Mithila paintings which are normally done on freshly plastered mud walls of huts in Mithila were on sale. Ashok Kumar Das, a veteran artist of the style, had colourful vegetable dye paintings framed and ready to be displayed for as little as Rs. 295 onwards.

There were also striking “kajal” work pieces drawn with a nib and, what else but kajal, on a cream parchment.

There were also a variety of Indian digestives like churans and mouth freshners on sale. Amla honey bursting with vitamin C, sweet and spicy mango slices, jeera sweets, all the gooey digestives we love to indulge in were available priced between Rs. 30 to Rs. 80 for 100 grams.

And if you are unhappy with the vaastu of your home, there were vaastu fountains, which were designer pieces.

“Each one is different and one of a kind,” said Parida.

Silk paintings with Warli art, original Orissa Ikkat sarees, MP Chanderi cottons, tiny Ganeshas for the Ganesha collector, West Bengal shadow work on linen and Pashmina shawls from Kashmir.

There is something for everyone at the sale, check it out and enjoy the varied art and craft of our country. The exhibition and sale is on till September 13.

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Tribes Of Neverland

The National Tribal Policy ‘draft’ is reason enough to celebrate. But what it lacks is the voice of the adivasi who it claims to protect, says SMITA JACOB

WHAT’S RIGHT India’s first attempt at a comprehensive policy for Scheduled Tribes Special fast track courts in scheduled areas to deal with land alienation Innovative measures to encourage development, eg. school text books Removed derogatory words like ‘primitive’ to address tribes

THERE ARE nearly 500 tribes in India constituting 140 million of us – 80 million Scheduled Tribes on the census record, and 60 million off the record, called the ‘denotified and nomadic tribes’ who have never been counted by India’s census. And yet, since independence, there hasn’t been a single comprehensive policy to cater to their basic needs of survival. Until now. Five years, two elections and many promises later, the National Tribal Policy (NTP), first proposed in 2004 by the NDA government, might finally see the light of day. Five years ago, the first draft was met with much opposition from civil society for adopting an assimilationist approach. It was criticised for trying to include tribal people with mainstream population, thus violating their rights and diluting their distinctiveness. It was also frowned upon for being a stand-alone document, not factoring in other applicable laws like the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act or the Land Acquisition Act and instead loosely speaking about measures like land rights, without any actual commitment.
In 2006, soon after the UPA government came to power, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs drafted a fresh policy. The draft handled the ‘assimilation’ issues that were diluting their unique identity and, instead, used an approach of ‘integration’. For example in Northeast India, over a 100 tribal ethnic minorities are dependent on shifting cultivation. Half of Meghalaya’s populat i o n , the Khasi tribes in particular, practice this method of farming for survival. While the 2004 draft coerced them to give up this ‘primitive’ method, pointing out that the tribes ‘do not seem to have any emotional attachment to land as an asset’, the current draft approaches this issue realistically by acknowledging that it is the only possible farming practice in interior areas that, in fact, promotes collective ownership of natural resources. While the 2004 draft makes vague suggestions like ‘encouraging qualified tribal doctors to serve tribal areas,’ the new draft proposes integrating indigenous and modern medicine for the tribal population. Such changes make the 2006 draft realistically address contemporary tribal issues such as evictions from forests, indebtedness and conflict and unrest, that were earlier never addressed. Yet, the drawback it suffers from the most is the lack of any action points or a timebound strategy to act upon.

PHOTOS: VIJAY PANDEY

The draft was placed before the union cabinet on May 31, 2007 for approval, following which it was referred to a group of ministers (GoM). In the recent Parliament session, Tushar Chaudhary, the Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, confirmed that the GoM has now forwarded the final draft to the cabinet for approval. A speedy approval now depends on the political commitment of the new UPA government, which apparently scheduled the approval of the NTP as a priority in its postvictory promises.
What then is the significance of a National Tribal Policy in the Indian context? Since independence, the major policy initiatives with regards to tribes have been Nehru’s outlined Panchsheel (a fivepointer guideline to develop a tribal policy) and constitutional provisions protecting Scheduled Tribes (STs). Various laws and schemes regarding different aspects of STs were formulated, each ambiguous and contradicting the other. This has deepened the sense of exclusion and alienation of adivasis in India, which has been manifesting itself in the form of tribal unrest. The emergence of Naxalism in Chhattisgarh and, more recently, in Lalgarh, has been capitalising on this very same tribal discontent. Previous UPA government Tribal Affairs Minister PR Kyndiah observed, “It is a paradox that the poor tribals are living in areas which are rich in minerals, forest resources and other natural bounties. The solution lies in giving rights to the ST communities over natural and financial resources, addressing economic deprivation.”

WHAT’S WRONG Only 20 days given to adivasi organisations to respond to the policy. No clear implementing agencies, timelines and operational strategies No right to self-determination as per UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples No redressal for STs in non-scheduled areas and denotified tribes

But what has been the space for STs themselves in the process of creating this landmark policy? Adivasi organisations and activists across the country were given 20 days (21 July – 10 August 2006) to provide comments and feedback on the draft policy. VK Srivastav, Professor, University of Delhi, explains why the draft may not give confidence to the tribal people: “The dynamic reality of tribal living is missing in the draft. It lacks the ‘tribal voice’. Throughout the text runs the ‘we-they’ distinction — what ‘we’ think tribes should be given.” To counter this essential shortcoming, a series of national and regional consultations with adivasi organisations and community groups should be sought before its approval.
In the wide range of current political debates in India, lies a core question: Who is a ‘Scheduled Tribe’? With the many ambiguities regarding the nature of the term, any comprehensive policy on the STs should have had an authoritative clarification on this term. However, the NTP merely points out the outdated and derogatory nature of criteria used for scheduling tribes so far — “primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact and backwardness”. The policy needs to outline new criteria from the perspective of deprivation and exclusion.

The choice to retain or rebuild their cultural and political identities should be theirs

IN THE transient state of globalisation, the adivasis in the country are faced with new aspirations and problems and so the choice to retain or rebuild their cultural and political identities should be left to them. Sharad Joshi, former member of the Rajya Sabha and leader of the Shetkari Sanghatana, observes: “A National Tribal Policy should be based on the principle of freedom for every tribal society to opt for either the old lifestyle or to go for the modern life, or choose access to both lifestyles.” India, along with 143 member-state nations of the UN, adopted the Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples in September 2007. Article 3 of the Declaration states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to selfdetermination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” And yet, the NTP is far from proposing the right to self-determination to help tribal communities choose their path of development as their fundamental right.
While the policy is a remarkable attempt to capture a holistic view of the contemporary tribal situation in the country, the extreme delay in approving the policy, its inability to fix concrete goals, and the lack of a participatory approach render it inadequate. For the UPA government to live up to its promise of empowering the ‘aam aadmi’, the voice of India’s tribes must be heard loud and clear before it is tabled to reflect a truly national policy.

Jacob works on tribal issues at The National Centre for Advocacy Studies

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56 Dalit families face eviction

DHARMAPURI: Fifty six Dalit families who have been living on 0.56 cents in Sengodipuram Colony for more than six decades face eviction.
The colony was established by the late Communist leader Jeevanantham in a plot of 4.78 acres and the Dalit families were settled there in 1948. . Cosmopolitan Club and members of other communities were given patta in this plot for 4.23 acres but not the Dalits. Dharmapuri Municipality Council at a meeting on July 27 passed a resolution to evict the Dalit families with the help of the district administration. However, Communist councillors opposed the resolution.
Harur MLA and Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretary P. Dillibabu told The Hindu that the Municipal Council’s resolution was against the Government Order 854 which ensured patta to those who were living on government land for more than five years. Mr. Dillibabu also said the resolution was against the Constitution of India which guaranteed Dalits the right to live. He urged the government to stop the eviction move and take necessary steps to issue patta to the 56 families immediately. He accused the municipality of being indifferent to them and favouring caste Hindus, Cosmopolitan Club and Indian Medical Association.
Many of the caste Hindu families had been paying only 0.12 paise as tax from 1954, he alleged. Instead of raising income by restructuring its tax structure the municipality with ulterior motives was bent upon evicting the poor people, he said.
CPM has planned agitations in front of the municipality from September 8 to 15 to express solidarity with the Dalits. CPM state secretary N. Varadarajan, party leader in the state legislature K. Balabharathy, Perambur MLA S.K. Mahendran, Gudiyatham MLA G. Latha, and other state leaders will participate in the agitations. A decision to this effect was announced by Mr. Dillibabu after the party’s district committee meeting here last week.

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'Chinese troops threaten Ladakhi tribes'

Even as the Chinese continue their incursions into Indian Territory, here is another worrying report that Chinese soldiers intruding into India are now threatening innocent Indian shepherds in the Ladakh area.

This startling piece of information has been revealed in a letter written by the Leh Deputy Commissioner. The letter reveals the Chinese threat made to Indian shepherds in January this year. The letter also makes a startling claim saying the Chinese are even claiming parts of Ladakh as their own.

P Stobden, China Expert, IDSA said, "They came and told our nomads to get out. They said 'Indians get out'. These words were being used very aggressively and they stayed there. I don't know the position right now, whether they have gone back or not."

What makes all this even more alarming is China's past record on incursions. In the past 25 years, China has taken control over at least three areas in Ladakh that initially belonged to India.

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