india

Updated: Feb 25, 2019 07:58 IST

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday constituted a cabinet committee to propose an action plan in view of the Supreme Court order for eviction of about one million tribal and other forest-dwelling families in 17 states. 1

The decision came after Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia wrote to Nath, expressing concerns regarding the possible eviction of over 350,000 people in MP, whose land rights claims have been rejected under the Forest Rights Act.

The apex court last week asked the governments of 17 states to evict from forests by July 12 an estimated one million tribal and other households whose claims of the right to live in forests were rejected. The cabinet committee in Madhya Pradesh comprises ministers Bala Bachchan, PC Sharma, Umang Singhar and Omkar Singh Markam.

“[The] committee is constituted to propose next action in light of the Supreme Court’s order regarding rejected claims of Scheduled Tribes people on forest land,” a Madhya Pradesh government order said.

On Saturday, Scindia wrote to Nath, saying the apex court’s order on February 20 concerns over a million tribals and other forest dwellers in the country.

“These include 3.5 lakh families from MP and the reason behind this was that the then BJP administration did not grant recognition to the claims of these people,” said Scindia. He said as per the documents submitted to the Supreme Court, the claims of over 0.2 million scheduled tribes and over 0.1 million forest dwellers were rejected in MP. He added the rejections were more than in any other state.

Scindia said the Central government did not present its plea for forest dwellers. He added its “carelessness” will impact their lives and urged Nath to take all possible measures to protect the rights of these people including the filing of a revision petition.

Madhya Pradesh BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said, “Blaming the central government for the apex court order is not correct. Kamal Nath government should look into the judgment and take steps to protect the rights of affected instead of blaming the BJP for everything.”