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The Congress president has written to party chief ministers, asking them to file a review petition against an SC order regarding mass-scale evictions of tribals and other forest-dwellers.
Nitin Sethi reports.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has written to chief ministers of states where his party is in power to file review petitions in the Supreme Court against mass-scale evictions of tribals and other forest-dwellers.
In separate letters with similar guidance to all chief ministers, Gandhi said, 'In order to pre-empt large-scale evictions, it would be expedient to file a review petition and take any other action you may deem fit.'
The letters were sent to all the chief ministers on February 23.
On February 22, responding to the apex court order, the Union tribal affairs ministry said, "It's clarified that the ministry of tribal affairs, government of India, is well aware of its responsibilities of defending the constitutional validity of the Forest Rights Act and the ministry will do everything at its disposal to safeguard the interests of the tribals as it has been doing so far."
The moves come in response to the Supreme Court order, which asked states to forcibly evict all tribals and other forest-dwellers whose claims under the Forest Rights Act had been rejected.
The court had warned each state to file a detailed affidavit on 'whether eviction has been ordered and possession has been taken or not'.
It also said, "It is further directed that the cases in which the orders have attained finality (for eviction), let eviction be made forthwith. In case of noncompliance of this order, the same shall be viewed seriously."
A total of 1.89 million claims had been rejected by November 2018, according to the tribal affairs ministry. Potentially all these households face the threat of eviction after the Supreme Court order.
From the key states in central India with high levels of tribal populations, Chhattisgarh was the first to take steps to prevent evictions. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tweeted, "The state government shall put up its own lawyer to defend the Forest Rights Act before the Supreme Court on the next hearing.
"If need be, a review petition would also be filed."
Digvijaya Singh, the Congress' senior political leader from Madhya Pradesh, said: "The court order impinges on the constitutionally guaranteed rights of tribals. We need to go in for an immediate review petition."
Chhattisgarh panchayati raj and rural development minister T S Singh Deo, said, "There is no case for eviction. We will not let such large-scale evictions take place. We have ordered a full time-bound review of all rejections (of claims made under the Forest Rights Act) ..."
The detailed orders sent to each district by the chief secretary, asking for such a scrutiny.
In Jharkhand where 26.3 per cent of the population is tribal, the opposition party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has prepared to hold protests in all districts and convene a larger inter-state meeting.
The party's executive president and former chief minister, Hemant Soren, said, "We cannot allow this to happen to tribals ... We are beginning our protests and will take whatever steps we can to prevent any forced evictions.
"This includes taking all legal recourses that may be required."
