Digvijay demands stopping forcible eviction of forest dwellers

Bhopal, July 19 (UNI) Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has demanded the Madhya Pradesh Government to stop forceful eviction of tribals from forest land.

In a letter written to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today, Mr Singh said large-scale eviction of forest dwellers had been carried out in the state after a bill was presented in the Lok Sabha in 2005.

While Mr Chouhan was advising forest dwellers in his 'Jandarshan' programmes to not leave the land they had in their possession until December 2005, it was unfortunate that they were being forcibly evicted by Revenue Department and Forest Department officials with the help of police.

Alleging that the government was providing different data regarding the numbers of forest dwellers being evicted, he said the forest department had informed that 12,000 title deeds had been cancelled by the Revenue Department by June 2006.

On the other hand, in a reply to a question, the forest department informed the assembly yesterday that 49,577 encroachers had been evicted by June 2006.

The former Chief Minister demanded Mr Chouhan to announce clear policy regarding land rights of forest dwellers and issue directions for providing possession to evicted tribals again.

UNI