Bhopal: Come July and more than two lakh tribal families residing in forest areas in Madhya Pradesh will be rendered homeless. The tribals will be asked to evict their homeland before coming July. This comes in wake of Supreme Court’s order on a PIL filed by several groups.
Overall 6,17,090 families made claims under different categories under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA), 2006 in Madhya Pradesh. The state earned distinction in rejecting as many as 2,53,742 claims – which comes to around 59% – under different categories.
Claims under the FRA were divided in three categories that included tribal habitants, traditional dwellers and land demanded for community purpose. Claim of 2,23,009 tribal people and 3159 traditional dwellers were rejected bringing the total number of families to be evicted to 2,26,168. These figures come from implementation report of the state government made for FRA till March 30, 2018.
Chief Secretary of the state has to file a sworn affidavit with the Supreme Court before July 27 stating implementation of apex court’s decision. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, directed the forced eviction of around two million people from forest areas spread across 17 states. As per the February 13 order, which was made available to the public on February 20, the evictions have to be carried out latest by July 27.
Following the court order, more than 11 lakh families, whose claim is rejected under FRA, will have to move out of their homes by July 27, the next date of hearing. The court has said that the matter would be viewed seriously if eviction isn’t carried out.
SC had directed eviction of all those families whose claims under the Forest Rights Act had been rejected. Over 11 lakh families living in forest areas in 17 states would have to evict their homeland. State CSs have been asked to file a sworn affidavit before July 27 stating implementation of court’s order.
