The Hindu : National : Modi gives forest land to tribals

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Wednesday, Oct 03, 2007
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Modi gives forest land to tribals

Manas Dasgupta

Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: Adopting a confrontationist course against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi threw an open challenge to the Centre to take action against him for handing over ownership rights of forest land to the tribals in defiance of the Central law.

Launching his self-styled “civil disobedience movement” on Gandhi Jayanti, Mr. Modi handed over ownership rights to 30 tribals in the tribal belt at a function here. Documents to the remaining of the 2,204 tribals would be despatched to them soon, he said.

The handing over of the “sanands” (ownership rights) was in keeping with the promise Mr. Modi made on Independence Day that his government would go ahead with the plan if the Centre failed to give its approval for it by October 2.

Mr. Modi said the government had sent 3,355 applications of tribals for approval under the 1980 Forest Act. But the Centre so far it had failed to give its assent. He said the State government had already conducted the necessary survey and checked the relevant documents. Mr. Modi criticised the Congress and the Central government both on counts of “neglecting the tribals” and the “Ram Setu” dear to the hearts of the tribals. He said that while the Centre so far had failed to form rules for the implementation of the revised forest land act for the tribals adopted in 2005, it was also forwarding “lame excuses” for not sanctioning the allocation of land to the rightful claimants under the 1980 Act. “The Congress and the UPA government had no concern for the tribals,” he said.

Declaring himself as the “messiah” of the tribals, Mr. Modi said Gujarat was the only State to have handed over ownership rights of over 34,000 hectares of forest land to over 45,000 tribal families. He claimed that not a single Congress-ruled State had so far given “even an inch” of forest land to the tribals. This, he believed, was the root cause of the naxalite unrest in some States.

He said if the Centre had no concern for the tribals, the State government could not remain a mute spectator to the injustice done to them. “I have decided to go ahead with handing over the legal rights to the tribals. The onus is entirely on me and the Centre is free to take any action against me it deemed fit,” he said.

While Mr. Modi drew huge applause for his defiance of the Centre and his reiteration of the Rs.15,000-crore “Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana” for the all-round development of the tribals and doubling their income, the Chief Minister had to face women’s ire at an earlier function organised to greet the “anganwadi” (pre-primary schools) workers.

Mr. Modi’s announcement of a marginal hike in the salary from Rs.500 to Rs.750 and Rs.1,000 to Rs.1,500 in different grades of the women anganwadi workers failed to satisfy the audience. Many of them walked out of the meeting. A protest was lodged with Education Minister Anandiben Patel.

The government also launched a new all-tribal district named Tapi, bifurcating the Surat district with headquarters at Vyara.

Mr. Modi also attended a prayer meeting at the Kirti Mandir, ancestral house of Mahatma Gandhi in Porbandar, and also addressed a meeting of the fishermen there declaring the government’s resolve to develop the ports. Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma led a prayer meeting at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram here taking an oath to reconstruct the country based on the Gandhian values and ideals.

The Congress celebrated the day by taking out a silent “padyatra” from the Sabarmati Ashram to the Kocharab Ashram.

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