Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The sale of tribal people’s land has put the political kettle on the boil in MP. It has happened after the Special Police Establishment (SPE) registered FIRs against three IAS officers for giving permission to sell land of tribal people in the Kundam area of Jabalpur.
Leader of Opposition Govind Singh demanded the government to issue a white paper on the sale of land, belonging to the tribal people, in the past 18 years. The officers have given permission to sell the land of tribal people, and there has been massive corruption in it, Singh said.
A tribal legislator Umang Singar also alleged that tribal people’s land was sold across the state the way it had been done in Jabalpur. Singar appealed to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to order a probe into the case.
According to sources, the government has acted only in those cases which came to light, but there are many such incidents as never came to the fore.
Collector Equally Responsible
A collector has the right to give permission to sell tribal land. The collector sometimes gives this right to an additional district magistrate, so the collector is also at fault.
A collector, however, cannot give this right to an ADM under section 165 (6) of the MP Land Revenue Code. On the contrary, a few collectors give this right to ADMs, so that if there is any problem, they get into trouble.
According to sources, ADMs give permission to sell the land of tribal people only when a local leader of any political party or a collector asks them to do so. Whenever there is any complaint, only ADMs face the music, sources said.
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