Madhya Pradesh tribals fume over CM’s ‘U’ turn

Tribal communities comprise about 21 percent of Madhya Pradesh’s population, and are concentrated in the State’s western, eastern and northeastern districts

Hyderabad: The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh, which has been projecting itself as the well wisher of the tribal community, has been exposed by its decision to take up the construction of Basania Dam on River Narmada affecting a large section of the tribal population.

The dam proposed in Odhari village of Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh will submerge a total of 6,343 hectares of land including 2,443 hectares of agricultural land, 2,107 hectares of forest land and 1,793 hectares of government land. Besides, the dam will displace 2,735 families from 18 tribal-dominated villages in Mandla and 13 in Dindori district, whose only means of livelihood is agriculture.

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Tribals of Mandla and Dindori districts have been up in arms to save their fertile lands and natural source of irrigation since January. They are agitated as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced in the State Legislative Assembly in March 2016 cancelling the proposed Basania Dam project along with six other dams on the River Narmada. And now seven years later, the Chief Minister has gone back on his promise and handed over the project to a Mumbai-based company.

Interestingly, Mandla district is classified under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution (Special Provisions for Tribal Areas), where the Panchayat Provision (Extension to Scheduled Areas) (PESA) Act is in force. The Act gives village councils absolute powers on many fronts, including land acquisition and development plans.

The proposed site of Basania dam comes under the Narmada Valley Project (NVP) and the Narmada Valley Development Authority has provided no information to any of the affected Gram Sabhas regarding this project so far, directly violating the constitutional rights given to the tribals under the PESA Act, according to reports.

Since 1980, the Narmada Development Authority has planned to build 29 large dams on the Narmada River, of which seven dams were cancelled, 10 were built, six are underway and work on the remaining 13 is yet to begin.

The decision of Chief Minister Chouhan has put the BJP leaders especially from the tribal belt in a fix as the State is going to polls later this year. About 47 assembly seats out of the 230 and six of the State’s 29 Lok Sabha seats are reserved for the tribal communinty, hence BJP leaders from these constituencies are a worried lot.

Tribal communities comprise about 21 percent of Madhya Pradesh’s population, and are concentrated in the State’s western, eastern and northeastern districts. As per the 2011 census, MP has 15.2 million tribal population.