News Analysis India

Tag: MP tribals

  • Madhya Pradesh CM gives tribals the right to manage community forest

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: A week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a series of tribal centric initiatives at the start of Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas (Tribal Pride Day) in Bhopal on November 15, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan travelled to tribal-dominated Mandla district of the state on Monday, November 22, for the completion of Janjatiya Gaurav Saptah week celebrations.

    The week-long celebrations are being seen as a conscious effort by the BJP government in the state to reach out to tribals, who form around 22% of the state’s population and are politically crucial on 100 plus assembly seats, including 84 scheduled tribes reserved seats.

    Attending the closing ceremony of Janjatiya Gourav Saptah at Ramnagar Mandla, he also dedicated and performed bhoomi-poojan of development works worth over Rs 600 crore.

    He announced that tribals would be given the right to manage community forest, they would plant a forest and they would have the right over its wood and fruits. Under the Mukhyamantri Awasiya Bhu-Adhikar Yojna, residential land rights letters will be provided to them.

    Chouhan also informed that the government is formulating a new excise policy, in which the tribal community will be able to make liquor traditionally from Mahua. The right to sell this heritage liquor will also be given to the tribals.

    The CM further said that minor and false cases filed against tribals would be withdrawn. Sand will be provided free of cost to the tribal community for making houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. “It is being considered to give the right to sell tendu leaves to the tribes from next year. This work will be done through forest committees.”

    He also said that the loans given by private moneylenders by August 20, 2020, to the tribal community at higher interest rates would end. Four rural engineers will be appointed in every village, who will be from the tribal society. Tribal youths will be provided training for the recruitment in police and army. Water will be supplied to every household through taps.

    “Water will be supplied through pipeline to 446 villages of Mandla district under Halon group water supply scheme worth Rs 613.30 crore. Water will be supplied to 182 villages through Narayanganj Bijadondi Group Water Supply Scheme. The Computer Skill Centre-cum-Library at Mandla will be named Raja Shankar Shah, Raghunath Shah Library. Women’s Polytechnic College Mandla will be named as Rani Phool Kunwar Polytechnic College. In Mandla district, one lakh bamboo saplings will be provided to the tribals to increase their income.”

    He also announced the opening of a medical college in Mandla district, which would be named Raja Hriday Shah Medical College.

    Host of facilities to be renamed after tribal hero Tantya Bheel

    Chouhan announced that the Primary Health Centre, Manpur in Indore will be named as Tantya Bhil Health Centre. The Tantya Bhil temple located at Patalpani (Indore) will be renovated. The Patalpani Railway Station will be renamed as Tantya Bhil Railway Station, Bhanwarkuan road crossing in Indore would be named as Tantya Bhil Chauraha. Similarly, MR-10 Bus Stand, also in Indore will be named as Tantya Bhil Bus Stand.

    As part of the saffron party’s tribal outreach efforts only, the Habibganj railway station (country’s first world-class railway station) in Bhopal was renamed after Bhopal’s last tribal queen Rani Kamlapati recently.

    The CM also digitally launched Baiga Yojana from the platform. Under the scheme, door-to-door surveys of all the people of the most backward tribal Baiga community will be done and they will be given the benefit of all the related schemes of the government. He also released the book “Main Baiga Hoon” published on Baiga culture.

    The CM also laid the foundation of the statues of tribal immortal martyrs Raja Shankar Shah and Raghunath Shah at Qila Ward Mandla on the concluding day of Janjatiya Gourav Saptah. He remembered and paid obeisance to Raja Shankar Shah and Raghunath Shah. The work of building the statue will be done at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.

  • Tribal man searching for missing wife lynched on suspicion of being thief in MP

    Express News Service

    BHOPAL: A 45-year-old tribal man, who was searching for his wife, was first hit by a motorcycle, then beaten up mercilessly by a group of men, before being tied to a pick-up vehicle and dragged on the road — all on suspicion of being a thief, in Singoli area of Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh. 

    The victim identified as Kanhaiya Lal Bheel succumbed to wounds later on Thursday only at Neemuch district hospital.

    The police have booked 8 men in connection with the incident. Five of them, including prime accused Chhitar Gurjar and Mahendra Gurjar (whose wife is a village sarpanch and was supported in a panchayat poll by ruling BJP), have already been arrested. “Besides the three absconding accused, the police are also checking out whether there were more people involved in the crime or not,” Neemuch SP Suraj Verma said on Saturday.

    The video of the middle-aged tribal man (with both legs tied through a rope) being mercilessly beaten, and tied to a pick-up vehicle before being dragged on the road, has gone viral over social media.

    The shocking incident happened when Bheel was searching for his wife, who had gone away with her brother-in-law. He was stopping and checking vehicles on the road to find out if his wife is inside the vehicle. This is the time when the prime accused Chhitar Gurjar was driving a motorbike. He hit Bheel deliberately suspecting the tribal man to be a thief.

    Subsequently, Gurjar called more men, including Mahendra Gurjar (husband of Bandada village sarpanch) to the spot and all of them mercilessly thrashed the middle-aged man. Seeing Bheel being beaten, his friend Govind Nai fled from the spot fearing that he would also fall prey to the attackers. The savagery didn’t end there, as Bheel was subsequently tied to a pick-up vehicle and dragged up to 50-100 meters.

    “The video of the incident helped the police to ascertain the extent of the crime. On Thursday, a First Response Vehicle (FRV) was sent to the spot following a phone call about an accident. On the spot, it was reported that the tribal man was injured critically due to a vehicle hit. His friend too reported the same. The victim’s statement couldn’t be recorded as he was unconscious and died before regaining consciousness at the Neemuch district hospital later.

    Subsequently, a case of causing death by negligence (Section 304 IPC) was registered initially. But subsequent probe and the viral video established later that it was actually a case of intentional killing by a group of men, after which the accused were identified and booked for murder (Section 302 IPC), and the pick-up vehicle too was seized,” SP Neemuch told The New Indian Express.

    All eight accused, including sarpanch’s husband Mahendra Gurjar, have also been booked under provisions of the SC/ST Act. Importantly, it was Mahendra Gurjar only, who had rung the police on Thursday and informed about the tribal man lying on road after an accident, after which an FRV was rushed to the spot. But later probe revealed that Mahendra was among those who lynched the tribal on suspicion of being a thief.