The Congress MLAs staged a walk out from the state assembly during the Question Hour on Wednesday protesting the government's failure to allot forest land to a large number of tribals.
The Congress MLAs staged a walk out from the state assembly during the Question Hour on Wednesday protesting the government's failure to allot forest land to a large number of tribals.
Replying to a question by Congress MLA from Dediapada, Amarsinh Vasava, tribal welfare minister Mangu Patel revealed that 11,947 tribals in Tapi district had applied for forest land of which the state government had allotted land to 728 tribals in the last three years.
He informed that 3,148 applications had been rejected, while 8,071 applications were pending before the government. He stated that 3,335 applications for allotting forest land to tribals were pending before the central government.
The minister stated that the state government had given forest land to as many as 45,345 tribals since 1980, and will allot land to more eligible applicants.
The minister also said that the state government was committed to allot land to all eligible tribal applicants. The Dediapada MLA, however, said that the large number of rejected and pending applications exposed the anti-tribal mindset of the state government.
The other Congress MLAs from Tapi and other tribal areas joined the issue alleging that even in their constituencies a large number of applications by tribals seeking forest land had been rejected or were pending.
The opposition MLAs asked state government to ease the process to allot land to the tribals. However, the minister stated that the allotment was being done in accordance with guidelines of the central government.
He commented that the opposition MLAs should approach the Centre with the demand.
Patel continued speaking, but was interrupted by the opposition members. Speaker Ganpat Vasava asked the Congress MLAs to let the minister finish his reply, but they refused to listen to him, and staged a walkout from the House.
Later, when the Congress members returned to the House, parliamentary affairs minister Dileep Sanghani raised a point of order stating that the opposition MLAs should express regret or be reprimanded as they had refused to listen to the Speaker's directives.
Leader of opposition, Shaktisinh Gohil, however, defended their action saying that they had not disrupted proceedings of the House.
He also pointed out that BJP MLAs had disrupted functioning of the assembly on Tuesday disregarding the Speaker's repeated requests.
“Our point was that eligible tribals should be allotted forest land. If our behaviour was worse than BJP MLAs behaviour on Tuesday, we are ready to accept any punishments,” Gohil said.
Speaker Vasava ruled that he was accepting the point of order and requested all members to take care that the speaker's rulings and directives are respected.
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