Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Moily opposes move to relocate tribal people

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA, NOV. 25. Former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily today opposed moves to relocate tribal people and others living in Kudremukh and the surrounding forests, which have been declared a national park. He said the areas occupied by tribal people and others should be alienated from the proposed national park to prevent any problems.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Moily said the State Government should understand the ground realities at the national park and find a way to ensure that the tribal people and others were not influenced by the naxalites operating in the region. He said that if necessary the Forest Act should be amended to alienate the land occupied by the tribal people from the national park to find an amicable solution.

Issues involved

The area under the Kudremukh National Park had been notified without understanding the real issues involved, he said. The problems of tribal people should have been taken into consideration before issuing the notification. He said that he was preparing a detailed note on how to deal with the situation and would submit it to the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, shortly.

Mr. Moily said that the reaction of issuing eviction notices to tribal people and inhabitants of the national park had increased naxal activities in the forest area. Mr. Moily said that he was instrumental in dissuading the State Government from implementing the plan to deploy the Special Task Force (STF) in the national park area to curb the influence of naxalites on the grounds that it would worsen the situation.

To a question on the Rs. 60-crore special package released by the previous Government, Mr. Moily said that the money had not reached the affected people nor it was it used for rehabilitation of the displaced tribal people. He said that there was a perception that tribal people destroyed forests, but this was untrue.

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Moily opposes move to relocate tribal people

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