Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 10.02.11
Non-Dalits reject pattas for relocation - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/10/stories/2011021063630500.htm
FinMin may set up non-lapsable funds for SCs, STs - Indian Express
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/finmin-may-set-up-nonlapsable-funds-for-scs-sts/748291/0
Shanties torched in Narnaul - The Times Of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Shanties-torched-in-Narnaul/articleshow/7464324.cms
Reconversion fear stalks MP Christians - The Hindustan Times
Top forest officer under fire for rejecting recommendations on FRA - The Hindustan Times
The Hindu
Non-Dalits reject pattas for relocation
http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/10/stories/2011021063630500.htm
D.Karthikeyan
District administration to persuade them, says Collector |
MADURAI: A team of Revenue officials led by North Tahsildar with a strong posse of police personnel visited the Vandiyur Theerthakadu village near Madurai on Wednesday, to hand over pattas to 327 non-Dalits who were allegedly encroaching upon the land meant for Dalits. However, the non-Dalits refused to accept the pattas and sought time to think over and take up the issue with the Collector. As per directions of the Madras High Court, the district administration had identified 3.87 hectares of land at Sakkimangalam second-bit village under four survey numbers to relocate them which they had rejected.
The Dalits of Vandiyur Theerthakadu village have been at the forefront of the three-decade-old struggle to retrieve the lands allotted to them by the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Welfare Department on March, 3, 1979.
The 349 Dalit families, who were living on the Vaigai riverbed, were allotted 9.73 acres of land (Old Survey No: 260/2A, 260/2B New Survey: No.112/2A, 2B) by the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department. Conversely, the land was encroached upon by caste Hindus and it is still under dispute.
Collector C.Kamaraj said that one non-Dalits had come forward to accept the patta and said that the administration would persuade others to accept the relocation. He further said that the rights of the Dalits would be upheld and the Court Order would be implemented on time.
The Madras High Court had twice ordered the removal of encroachments and relocation of the encroachers, but the administration has not been able to implement it.
Indian Express
FinMin may set up non-lapsable funds for SCs, STs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/finmin-may-set-up-nonlapsable-funds-for-scs-sts/748291/0
Priyadarshi Siddhanta Thu Feb 10 2011, 08:39 hrs New Delhi:
Seeking to make bigger inroads into the dalit bastions of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the ruling UPA has intensified its efforts to woo them to further consolidate its vote bank. The expenditure statement of the Budget 2011-12 is expected to have focused earmarking of funds for the socio-economic upliftment of the SC/ST population.
Indications are that finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will announce setting up of two non-lapsable funds one each for schedule caste and schedule tribe sub-plans to plug all roads to diversion of funds by the ministries implementing the plans. This implies that the recommendations of the Narendra Jadhav Committee would be put into practice this year, in which 40 ministries will heave a sigh of relief as the sword of ear-marking funds for the two plans would be removed. However, the remaining ministries will have to earmark extra funds for the sub-plans and some of them will have to allocate up to 70 per cent funds.
Putting states and the Centre together, the Union Budget will see around 86,000 crore earmarked for the welfare of SC/ST population, with minimised chances for diversion of funds. Of this the Centre and states would spend nearly Rs 54,000 crore exclusively for welfare of SCs while another Rs 32, 000 crore will be for the ST population.
Sometime back, minister for social justice and empowerment Mukul Wasnik had written to the Planning Commission to overhaul the planning and funding pattern of the SC/ST sub-plans and that the existing guidelines be re-worked accordingly.
He reminded that the Congress party in its election manifesto in 2009 had pledged that allocations for the SCs and STs would be made according to their population.
However, critics of this move are a worried lot. They fear that plan process could lose its relevance and claim that with this over 32 per cent of central budget would go towards dedicated funding including 10 per cent is already earmarked for North east.
This, they say, would leave less than 70 per cent of GBS for planning over all development and constraint executing agencies from taking upon ambitious programmes especially when the budgetary allocation would also include dedicated funding for J&K.
But, those in favour argue that economics can not be divorced from politics and with the growing influence of SC/ST in the voting pattern, such initiative are bound to come in future also specially when Congress, the leading ally of UPA has major stakes in states like UP and Bihar.
The Times Of India
Shanties torched in Narnaul
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Shanties-torched-in-Narnaul/articleshow/7464324.cms
Manveer Saini, TNN, Feb 10, 2011, 02.02am IST
CHANDIGARH: Even as the dirt of Mirchpur arson is yet to settle down, unidentified henchmen of influential families allegedly set 25 shanties on fire and destroyed 30 others, being occupied by families belonging to below the poverty line (BPL) category, at Duloth Aheer village ofNarnaul on Tuesday night. Police have started investigations after registering the case against Madan and Bhupinder Singh, on the complaint of one of the victims.
Ironically, it was only after the poor, who included Dalits of various sub-castes, agitated in front of the office of deputy commissioner Saket Kumar during early hours of Wednesday, that Saket and Narnaul SP Maharaj Singh visited the spot.
Sources said preliminary probe revealed that the accused are believed to be henchmen of those who own plots adjacent to those occupied by BPL families. The government had allotted 100 yard Shamlat plots to 104 BPL families in last week of January.
'The miscreants, numbering more than 30, came under cover of darkness and torched shanties while issuing threats,'' an eye witness said. The occupants ran and did not return till dawn.
'Probe is on and we will arrest the accused in the next 24 hours,'' Narnaul SP said.
The Hindustan Times
Reconversion fear stalks MP Christians
Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times
Jabalpur, February 09, 2011
The RSS-sponsored Samajik Kumbh at Mandla, which is known for considerable tribal population and sizeable church presence, has created a sense of unease among Christians who fear they may be targets. The Kumbh — where lakhs of people are expected to gather from February 10 to 12 — at Mandla, 95 km from here, is being seen as a show of strength by the RSS. There is buzz that it is aimed at "reconverting" Christian tribals and mobilising them in favour of the BJP. The state has pumped in both money, manpower for an event where the entire national brass of the Sangh will congregate. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also expected on Thursday.
Critical of this "mixing of politics and religion", Church personnel have met the CM, district magistrate, and the superintendent of police fearing tensions. The Bishop of Jabalpur has formally requested the DM and SP for protection for Christians and their properties. Christian leaders have also submitted to the authorities "RSS literature" that generates hatred against the community, even painting a gloomy picture of dwindling Hindu numbers and "denationalisation" if "Christian conversions" are not checked.
Catholic Church personnel in Mandla, Dhindori, Jabalpur and other adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh have set up a Christian helpline to assist any Christian who may face "trouble" in view of the RSS-sponsored Samajik Kumbh at Mandla, which is known for considerable tribal population and sizeable church presence.
The helpline is the cell phone number of a prominent church functionary, with the entire church structure in nearby districts being alerted — via e mail, phone calls and other means —to inform the helpline immediately about any trouble.
RSS leaders denied the suggestions that the gathering will create tension. "Some people from outside may be spreading rumours but many local Christian leaders have welcomed the Kumbh, which is an attempt to instill pride in our glorious traditions and bring all communities together...," RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya told HT.
The Hindustan Times
Top forest officer under fire for rejecting recommendations on FRA
Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, February 09, 2011
India's senior most forest officer P J Dalip Kumar, director general of forests, is under fire from members of the N C Saxena committee on implementation of Forest Rights Act for misreading their report and thereby rejecting its recommendations. Kumar, in his remarks on the report submitted to environment minister Jairam Ramesh and tribal affairs minister Kanti Lal Bhuria in the first week of January, had rejected most recommendations stating they it will destroy Indian forests.
Environment and tribal affairs ministries have to implement the recommendations of the committee, which seeks more livelihood avenues for dwellers from forests and their active support in conservation.
"The proposal that state forest department will give the protection while the community would have ownership/control is not a workable arrangement," Kumar said, while responding to the committee's recommendation that forest dwellers should get control over community land. Ramesh had accepted the recommendation.
Hitting back at the DG, half of the committee members said his claims were based on misreading of the report and were not backed up by their fieldwork. The committee had said that only 20,000 community rights have been give as against individual rights to 1.4 crore individual rights.
The members told both Ramesh and Bhuria that the community forest rights have not been given a fair trial to draw the conclusion that the communities are not interested and the DG's contention on this issue was inappropriate.
Kumar response also did not elaborate on how the forest departments will help in implementing the community rights, they said.
The written response also termed Kumar's claim that the committee recommendation that prior occupation should not be insisted for seeking a right was total misreading of the report. "We never made such a recommendation," said Ravi Chellam, one of the committee members.
In a point wise rejoinder to the DG's response, the members accused the DG of failing to respond to several other recommendations where the environment ministry is required to take a lead.
One of the issues was illegal eviction of tribals from forestland leading to vitiation of the Forest Rights Act and fresh encroachments reported from some areas. Another issue was involvement of gram sabhas in overall management of forests and to ensure locals get rightful access to minor forest produce such as bamboo and tendu leaves.
They also wanted to know how the environment ministry will ensure that clearance for diversion of forestland complies with Forest Rights Act, including the ministry's circular of 2009. The ministry had made it mandatory to seek gram sabha approval before diversion of forestland in tribal areas.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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