Tribals alleges step motherly treatment

Jawahar (Thane), Nov 12 (UNI) The tribals in Thane district will intensify their agitation to draw the attention of the state government towards ''step motherly treatment meted out to them.'' They will resort to ''Rail roko and Rasta roke'' in the coming days in the tribal dominated Jawahar.

Taking up cudgels on their behalf, the opposition BJP and Shiv Sena staged a Rasta roko on Friday to protest against the various issues including - malnutrition deaths, shortage of power, water supply and works under EGS.

The president of the Thane district (Rural) unit of the BJP and former party MP from Dahanu, Chintaman Wanga, told newsmen here today that if the government fails to act and resolve the long pending issues now, the tribals will intensify their agitation.

Om Prakash Sharma, a senior BJP leader and former member of the National Council of the party, said that the government was not keeping its promises of developing the tribal regions.

They said that while the urban region in the state was being given much importance and gets the maximum benefits of the projects the rural areas were still suffering as they were neglected.

On the long pending demand for the bifurcation of the district, they said each and every Chief Minister who assumes office admits that bifurcation was a necessity but no one has taken any concrete step in this direction.

One of the Chief Minister went to the extent of agreeing to the demand that the district should be bifurcated but later expressed his inability due to shortage of funds.

Almost 13 per cent of the population of the state was in Thane district but when it came to giving benefits it gets the meagre share of funds, they added.

After the 1992-93 large scale malnutrition deaths and due to the subsequent agitation, they could get the tribal's headquarters at Jawahar but this time the struggle is for a separate district.

UNI XR MJ/OBB VKG1815