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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Tribals lose common utility area

Tribals lose common utility area

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published Published on Aug 6, 2011   modified Modified on Aug 6, 2011
-The Hindu
 
Land taken over for building a medical college hospital

Villagers belonging to the Sabar tribe – an aboriginal community — woke up to a rude shock at Andharua village, near here, on Friday.

Tribal persons were evicted by baton-wielding police personnel from a piece of land they had fought with the administration for long to preserve as common utility space for the next generation.

Armed policemen descended on the 25-acre land identified for the proposed medical college and hospital by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

Though a boundary wall was erected around 20 acres in the project site, the remaining five acres was in possession of the Sabars. Several attempts to make the villagers vacate the land had proved futile. On their part, the Sabars had been staking their claim to the land at various fora, including with the Sub-Collector, Bhubaneswar.

30 injured

“The police action proved that tribal persons were not part of any development process. At least 30 community leaders sustained serious injuries, while others could not escape the baton when police took over the land,” said Sala Marandi, general secretary of the Odisha Adivasi Mahasabha which spearheads the land movement.

Mr. Marandi alleged that “the tribals were not given any warning before the police action. Thatched houses were razed to the ground while agitating women were literally thrown off the land. Even elderly men and women were not spared.”

Villagers claimed that they had been using the land for all sorts of purposes such as cremation, growing vegetables, holding community meeting and grazing ground for domesticated animals.

“But when the State government allotted the land for construction of a medical college and hospital, it did not bother to consult us. Most of us are landless while we stay in dingy houses on small land patches. The five acres of land was the only breathing space for our community,” said Bikram Majhi.

“The medical college and hospital is a project nobody wants to oppose. But the hospital could have been established on land under forcible possession of influential land mafia. Why should we be made sacrificial lamb?” he asked.

The Khurda district administration had assured the community it would undertake a detailed land survey near the project site for allotting land to homeless families. But inhabitants of Sabarsahi in Andharua said the administration did not send any land survey teams.

Members of the aboriginal community threatened they would forcibly reclaim the land.

The Hindu, 6 August, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2329660.ece


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