NEW DELHI: Villagers of Banjikachhar village in Odisha’s verdant Sundergarh district are protesting the set up of high tension electricity towers in their forests. They have alleged that the decision to clear forests and set up these towers used to be taken with out consulting the gram sabha.
This, even if the forest village has already carried out for popularity of community forest useful resource rights of its villagers which is pending with the government. Now, police is guarding the undertaking house limiting the entry of tribals into forests.
According to a criticism filed by the gram sabha on May 22 to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) and the district magistrate, SP of Sundergarh has deputed 8 platoons of police since May 11, 2018. Police is barring locals from entering the undertaking house whilst bushes were cleared to make manner for the high tension electricity towers. "Since our community is completely dependent on forests for collection of non-timber forest produce (NTFP), we are opposed to this project. Neither administration nor the contractor discussed the installation of these towers with us or have taken the consent of gram sabha. As per FRA’s section 5 and Panchayats Act, taking up a project without gram sabha consent is illegal," reads the criticism.
It additionally alleges that three gram sabha contributors were detained for protesting towards the undertaking and FIRs were filed by the police towards 15 other villagers. "The three gram sabha members haven’t been granted bail yet. Villagers are not being allowed to access land where they practiced subsistence farming. The project is underway. Contractors have cut down a lot of fruit bearing trees too without consulting the villagers," stated Sanghamitra Dubey of Vasundhara, a Bhubaneshwar based totally ngo specialising in forest rights. She added that the contractor of the undertaking seems to have lied to get a forest clearance. "We have seen the forest clearance documents. On whether the project is located in a scheduled area, the user agency says no. This is a lie. Entire Sundergarh district is a panchayats (extension to scheduled areas) act (PESA) area. So all the villages affected by the project are scheduled and are forest villages," added Sanghamitra.
Anusuiya Uikey, vice chairperson, NCST advised TOI that “we have now issued a letter to the management searching for main points of this example. If tribals were arrested on false charges then we will be able to send an investigation group or summon officers related with the case. We may even take a look at whether tribals were consulted at the undertaking that has arise on their forest land."
This, even if the forest village has already carried out for popularity of community forest useful resource rights of its villagers which is pending with the government. Now, police is guarding the undertaking house limiting the entry of tribals into forests.
According to a criticism filed by the gram sabha on May 22 to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) and the district magistrate, SP of Sundergarh has deputed 8 platoons of police since May 11, 2018. Police is barring locals from entering the undertaking house whilst bushes were cleared to make manner for the high tension electricity towers. "Since our community is completely dependent on forests for collection of non-timber forest produce (NTFP), we are opposed to this project. Neither administration nor the contractor discussed the installation of these towers with us or have taken the consent of gram sabha. As per FRA’s section 5 and Panchayats Act, taking up a project without gram sabha consent is illegal," reads the criticism.
It additionally alleges that three gram sabha contributors were detained for protesting towards the undertaking and FIRs were filed by the police towards 15 other villagers. "The three gram sabha members haven’t been granted bail yet. Villagers are not being allowed to access land where they practiced subsistence farming. The project is underway. Contractors have cut down a lot of fruit bearing trees too without consulting the villagers," stated Sanghamitra Dubey of Vasundhara, a Bhubaneshwar based totally ngo specialising in forest rights. She added that the contractor of the undertaking seems to have lied to get a forest clearance. "We have seen the forest clearance documents. On whether the project is located in a scheduled area, the user agency says no. This is a lie. Entire Sundergarh district is a panchayats (extension to scheduled areas) act (PESA) area. So all the villages affected by the project are scheduled and are forest villages," added Sanghamitra.
Anusuiya Uikey, vice chairperson, NCST advised TOI that “we have now issued a letter to the management searching for main points of this example. If tribals were arrested on false charges then we will be able to send an investigation group or summon officers related with the case. We may even take a look at whether tribals were consulted at the undertaking that has arise on their forest land."
We were never consulted on high tension towers being installed in our forests: Gram sabha
![We were never consulted on high tension towers being installed in our forests: Gram sabha]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
May 24, 2018
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