Badnawar (Madhya Pradesh): Intensifying their agitation against the site chosen for PM Mitra Textile Park in Bhensola village, tribals of Badnawar tehsil and other areas of Dhar district, under the banner of Zameen Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, will organise a Maha Panchayat of the people of the affected area on Sunday.
Eminent social activists from across the country and leaders related to tribal issues will be present and will talk about cancelling the project from here and putting it somewhere else.
Notably, the proposal to establish the PM MITRA Park in Bhensola village received formal approval from the Government of India in March 2023. This extensive park, spanning 1,563 acres in Bhensola village, falls entirely under the possession of MPIDC.
Meanwhile, in the tribal-dominated area of Badnawar, many believed that a plan was made by the government to establish a textile industry by evicting the tribals who had been farming on the land for hundreds of years. And from day one, there has been opposition from the tribal community of about 15 nearby villages.
A memorandum was also submitted by the villagers at the local level as well as by visiting the SDM office here. However, the administration started efforts to work on the ground by installing many machines on the spot. Therefore, the villagers reached the Dhar collectorate, staged a demonstration half-naked, and submitted a memorandum.
In front of all these resistances, the machines continued running at the spot. Then village women lay down in front of the machines and got them stopped immediately. Subsequently, the contractor stopped the ongoing work of machines and the dumpers.
After the work was stopped for several days, a public hearing was organised by the additional collector, in which the villagers protested, kept their demands, and said that not even an inch of their land would be given. Immediately after that, the collector visited the area and tried to know the problems and demands of the affected villagers. But the rural women and children said that the land would not be given.
On this, Badnawar MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat said that the land and houses of the tribals in the Wagh Pada area of Badnawar should not be burned. This is their ancestral land, on which they have been farming for many years, and their family is supported by it. The mega park could be constructed without harming these tribals.
