27k ration cards for tribals ready; land rights norms relaxation & clearance of claims within 6 months on anvil
After series of dna reports on 600 tribal kids for losing their lives due to malnutrition from April to July this year in the state including 126 deaths in the Tribal Development Minister’s home district Palghar alone, the Maharashtra government has finally woken up to the plight of tribal communities.
The government on Friday proposed a series of reforms to ease out the bottleneck in the welfare schemes for tribals. Relaxed norms for land rights, time bound disposal of pending land claims, 27,000 ration cards for Palghar tribes, disbursal of pending wages, strengthening of nutrition scheme for mothers are among some of the measures finalised by the government.
Reforms will help over 45 tribal communities spread across 16 districts in the state. Over one crore tribals account for 9.5% of the population in the state.
“Over 27,000 ration cards have been prepared to be distributed among the Palghar tribals,” said an official privy to the development. The move aims to offer immediate relief to those households, which were unable to procure grains, that are ensured to every poor in India under the Food Security Act, 2013.
“To make it easy for the tribals to claim their right on land, the number of mandatory documents are now dropped from 13 to just two. One has to only give proofs for cultivation and residence in the area to claim the land. A decision to clear all pending claims, which were stuck due to procedural hurdles within six months has been taken,” said the official.
Tribals, whose cases were pending due to dispute in the size of cultivated land and land in their names will not be ousted till the clearance of pendency. Those who already have livelihood resources will be allowed to claim their land rights, said an official, a move that might open the avenue for IAS officers and doctors of tribal category to get free forest land.
dna in a series of ground reports in September highlighted the plight of tribals and landless farmers in Palghar area, who due to lack of unskilled work and livelihood resources and living in abject poverty and hunger, were leading to severe malnutrition and death of children.
dna also exposed how Centre’s job guarantee scheme NREGA was poorly implemented in Palghar. As per government statistics, only 650 households in Palghar district (which has over 11 lakh tribals) have got 100 days of job this year. Besides, over 33,900 households demanded work under MNREGS this year but only 28,300 households were provided with work.
dna also revealed that as per government statistics, only 1,475 households in the entire district were beneficiaries of land reforms even as Forest Rights Act, 2006 guarantees land (three acre) to all landless tribals if they have been cultivating on it since a long time.
The reports have resulted in pan-India uproar prompting the National Human Rights Commission serving a notice and SC slamming the Fadnavis government for apathy over tribals deaths.
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