Benegal has criticised civic officials in Ahmedabad for evacuating nearly 2,000 denotified tribals from Maninagar area on grounds of encroachment.
AHMEDABAD: Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal has criticised civic officials in Ahmedabad for evacuating nearly 2,000 denotified tribals from Maninagar area of the city on grounds of encroachment.
Benegal has shot off a letter to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) urging the officials to provide the evacuees adequate housing and basic amenities due to all citizens.
The tribals, who were living in Dabghar Vaas locality of Maninagar, were removed by AMC on February 5. The locality has been demolished over ten times in the past
four years.
“In the demolition drive undertaken by the corporation to develop this area, no plan for rehabilitation of this community has been worked out. This is a fundamental requirement and is the primary responsibility of a democratic government towards its citizenry,” Benegal said in the letter to AMC commissioner IP Gautam.
Rehabilitating the tribals and providing alternative accommodation should not be a major task for the corporation as their number is not too large, Benegal wrote in the letter, a copy of which is available with DNA. The “humanitarian action” to rehabilitate 2,000 people “will set an excellent example for all cities,” he added.
While Ahmedabad municipal commissioner was not available for comments, rights group activists said civic officials have failed on their promise to rehabilitee denotified tribals.
“Even though the former municipal commissioner Anil Mukim and deputy municipal commissioner Z A Saccha promised to provide an alternate arrangement for them after a one-day hunger strike by us, there was no follow-up once these officers were transferred,” an activist of Budhan Theatre, Daxin Bajrange, said.
Despite amplifying criticism from all across the state, AMC is only offering rehabilitation to families which possess legal documentation provided to them after a
survey on the city’s slums in 1976.
“We cannot do anything. Those without legal proof will have to leave the place,” said deputy commissioner RJ Makadia. However, community leader, Ramswaroop Dabghar said, “We have been living here since 1960. But due to lack of knowledge and several encroachments in the last 10 years many of us have lost documents.”
According to Dabghar, the number of families in the locality has also increased since 1976. “Where will these families go?” he enquires.
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