Congress to help Advasis get their land rights, says Mistry

Ahmedabad, Sep 1 (UNI) The Congress will launch a movement from September 25 to help tribals, allotted forest land by the state government, reclaim their rightful ownership of their land, said Congress MP Madhusudan Mistry here today.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi, incidentally, had announced earlier that he would sit on ''satyagraha'' from October 2 if the Centre failed to grant land rights to 4,000 tribals, an issue which has been pending with the Centre for the past three years. Mr Modi had said that if the Centre did not arrive at a decision in this regard by October 2, the Gujarat government will proceed unilaterally and accord land rights to the tribals, unmindful of the the legal consequences.

Mr Mistry, however, refuted the Chief Minister's charges saying the state government had sent no proposals in this regard to the Central government.

He, however, admitted that between 1995-2006, as many as 26 applications were submited to the Centre by the Modi government.

Eight applications were found in order while in another eight, the issue was being contested in the Supreme Court. One application was rejected while four are stranded in the state's information department, Mr Mistry said.

He said that many of the land given to the tribals were only on paper and the state was cultivating them. Adivasis and those who are living in the forest for ages are not allowed to occupy the land as the state has launched plantation drive.

Mr Mistry said the Centre had de-deeded 49,000 hectares out of which the state had given 20,000 hectares to the Vanvasis. For cultivation, an ''advasi'' needs at least five acres, Mr Mistry said adding that although the state had passed the law in 2005, it has not been implemented in spirit.

UNI