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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Illegal transfers: Adivasis in Chhattisgarh plan to criminally prosecute firms that hold their land -Raksha Kumar

Illegal transfers: Adivasis in Chhattisgarh plan to criminally prosecute firms that hold their land -Raksha Kumar

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published Published on Jul 19, 2017   modified Modified on Jul 19, 2017
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According to the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, land owned by Adivasis cannot be transferred to non-Adivasis.

It was 2009. Arjun Singh Manjhi of Bhengari village in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh wanted some money to fix his leaking roof. Since he had small plots of land in different parts of the village, he decided to sell one of them to meet his expenses. He sold one acre to Mahesh Patel and continued farming on the rest.

Until March 2012, Manjhi had no idea that the ownership of all his 7.5 acres of land had been transferred to Patel. Manjhi claims Patel made him sign on a bunch of papers and he had no idea that they contained sale deeds for all his lands. Patel, in turn, had sold all of Manjhi’s land to TNM Energy, a company that operates a 600 MW coal-fired thermal power plant in neighbouring Khokhraooma village. Only when Manjhi tried to sell another piece of his land did he find out. “I went to a buyer with my papers and he told me that I did not own the land anymore,” he said. “And the patwari [land record keeper] said it belonged to the company now. This kind of cheating was happening to people all around, but I did not pay attention to it until it happened to me.”

Not only Manjhi, between 2012 and 2017, about 100 farmers from Khokhraaoma, Katangdi, Bhengari and Nawapara Tenda villagers of Gharghoda tehsil in Raigarh district, found out that more than 680 acres of their land was now held by two companies – TNM Energy and Mahavir Coal Corporation.

According to the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, in areas like Raigarh where more than 50% population is tribal, land owned by Adivasis cannot be transferred to non-Adivasis without the consent of the Gram Sabha or the village council.

This is not the first time Adivasis in Chhattisgarh have alleged fraud in land deals. In Raigarh district, everyone has a different story of how they have been cheated. Some allege they were underpaid for their lands, some claimed they did not want to sell their lands but were coerced to, some allege forgery, some say their signatures were taken on blank sheets of paper on some pretext or the other, and according to some, larger parts of their lands were taken away than they had agreed to. A few villagers allege they were threatened.

“We fight hundreds of such cases under Section 170 (B) of the Chhattisgarh land revenue code,” said Shishir, a Bilaspur-based lawyer. Under this section, the affected farmer files a petition with the sub-divisional magistrate, who then conducts the investigation. If found in violation of the law, the sub-divisional magistrate restores the land to the Adivasi.

But this time, about 90 farmers from the four villages want to fight it out in the criminal courts. “Adivasis have been quiet long enough and we repeatedly get cheated,” said Paavitri Manjhi, sarpanch of Khokhraaoma village (no relation to Arjun Singh Manjhi). “But, this time we will fight it out and set a precedent. We want criminal proceedings to be carried out against those who have cheated us off our lands.”

A senior government official who asked not to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media said: “If the villagers are successful in their attempt to criminally prosecute the companies, it would act as a huge deterrent.”

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Scroll.in, 17 July, 2017, https://scroll.in/article/843427/illegal-transfers-adivasis-in-chhattisgarh-plan-to-criminally-prosecute-firms-that-hold-their-land?utm_content=bufferededa&utm_medium=soc


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