Provide facilities, Bastar tribals tell Rights team

Dantewada, May 19 (UNI) The tribals displaced during the anti-naxal movement Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh have urged the National Human Rights Commission's team to provide basic facilities in relief camps as well as villages and stamp out terror from the backward tribal Bastar region.

The villagers handed over more than 100 applications to the members of the team, which toured the naxal-affected areas on the Supreme Court's directive.

The 11-team which arrived here on Saturday will tour the affected areas for a week, official sources said.

In the presence of senior police officers, several tribals cordoned of the Sukma guest house, where the team was staying, and narrated their problems yesterday.

The team also visited the government-run relief camps for uprooted villagers at Dornapal and Bijapur, where farmers said they had been compelled to leave their villages and take shelter in camps due to naxal atrocities and terror in the area.

They sought adequate supply of foodgrains in relief camps and expressed their willingness to return to their tribal hamlets provided the government ensured their security.

About a dozen residents of Edka village near Dornapal alleged that police had beaten them two days ago charging that they had aided naxalites. An injured tribal had to be admitted to the hospital, they added.

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