The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has served fresh notices to the states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra, on the issue of people who reportedly got displaced/migrated from Maoist-violence hit parts of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh to the bordering areas of the neighbouring states in 2005/6.
The notices come in continuation of a June 2019 order of the commission, in which the Chhattisgarh government was asked to complete a survey of the displaced/migrated people within three months and asked the other states to cooperate in this matter. Also, Chhattisgarh was asked to receive applications for in-situ rehabilitation under section 3.1m of the Forest Rights Act, 2005 and take proper action to provide alternative lands to the people.
However, with the Chhattisgarh government initiating no action, Shubhranshu Choudhary, convener of The New Peace Process and original complainant in the matter, had written to the NCST chairman recently to take due steps in the matter.
Harsh Chouhan, chairman of NCST, told THE WEEK that the issue had come to his notice and he had directed that fresh notices be served to the states seeking replies in a month's time. “We will initiate further action after getting these replies,” Chouhan said.
The Nowhere People
Choudhary told THE WEEK that the issue is about roughly 50,000 people who were forced to leave from South Bastar (undivided Dantewada district) in 2005 and 2006 after getting caught between Maoist violence and state action through Salwa Judum – a counter-insurgency initiative involving trained local tribals later disbanded on order of the Supreme Court.
He said that these people live in about 240-250 settlements mainly in four districts – two each of Telangana (Mulugu and Bhadradri Kothagudem) and Andhra Pradesh (East and West Godavari districts) in the bordering forests with Chhattisgarh. The majority are in Bhadradri Kothagudem where a local survey has shown the presence of about 115 settlements involving 16,000 people. Some had shifted to Odisha and Maharashtra as per reports, but no confirmation is available about such cases.
In the letter to the NCST, Choudhary mentioned that the situation has worsened for the settlers recently as “states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have started plantation on the land captured by these tribals after their displacement from Chhattisgarh and they have been orally asked by forest and police officers to move back to Chhattisgarh. There is one more issue of grave concern which is that these tribals are called Gutti Koyas but in the Schedule for Andhra Pradesh and now Telangana, their name is written as Gutta Koya hence they do not get any benefit of ST, which needs to be corrected with your help.”
Choudhary said in the letter that these internally displaced people (IDPs) suffered much in terms of their rights--economic, social and political. They were accommodated in ongoing schemes in education, healthcare and rural employment sector, by the host-state, yet, the crucial fact is these formerly rooted-people (even landed in some parts, however uncultivable) became political destitutes.
IDPs in Tellavrigudem village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh
He further told THE WEEK that in the past two years, the Telangana and AP governments have started showing reluctance to allow permanent settlement to these people and are attempting to send them back, as they probably feel that these settlements might act as contact points/hideouts for the Maoists (most of them Telugu speaking) being pushed out of Chhattisgarh due to sustained action of security forces there.
Telangana government started evicting the settlers from forest lands in 2020 on the grounds that they were not tribals as per the state's definition. Also, both AP and Telangana governments have started replantation on the forest land that these settlers had cleared and were using to grow crops for sustenance from the past 15 years.
Many of these settlers, however, despite not having basic rights and documents and forced to do manual labour at lower rates due to local pressure, do not want to go back to Chhattisgarh for the fear of their lives and want to be rehabilitated permanently in the host states. However, another section is willing to go back to Chhattisgarh on condition of getting settled in peaceful parts of the state. About 500 of these people had applied for in-situ rehabilitation under FRA for this purpose, two years ago.
But the Chhattisgarh government has taken no steps to conduct the survey, or action on these in-situ rehabilitation applications. Rather, the government seemed to be even denying any such displacement/migration, Choudhary said.
In a reply to a question put up by Lakheshwar Baghel, Congress MLA from Bastar and chairman of the Bastar Region Tribal Development Authority, in the budget session of state Assembly in March 2021, home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu had replied that no case of any families from Bastar migrating/getting displaced due to Naxal violence had come to light.
Baghel has decided to seek a review in this matter. In a recent letter to the principal secretary, Baghel said that recently 500 families had written to him to say that they were forced to migrate to AP (later bifurcated to Telangana) in 2005 due to Naxal violence. In this light, fresh information should be gathered in context of the written reply of the home minister, Baghel said in the letter.
“I will take steps to see that these people get justice. If needed, I will take along other MLAs from affected areas and talk to the chief minister Bhupesh Baghel,” the MLA told THE WEEK. Home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu could not be contacted for a response despite repeated attempts.
Sori Ganga, a settler at Kranti Nagar under Gattumalla Gram Panchayat of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, told THE WEEK over telephone that he shifted to Telangana from his home village in Bijapur district (then part of undivided Dantewada) of Chhattisgarh as a 12-year-old in 2006. “I was pulled out of school in Kondapalli by my father and sent across to my elder cousin who had already shifted here, so that I could be safe. Now I work as a health worker here and do not want to go back. Also, others who have migrated here do not want to go back as they fear getting targeted either by Naxals or police. We came to know that some people who shifted back from Telangana to Sukma Chhattisgarh in December (2021) were killed by police as Naxals.”
When asked about not being considered as tribals in Telangana and not getting basic rights, Ganga conceded that the Telangana forest authorities had started replantation on the lands that the settlers from Chhattisgarh were occupying and also that the settlers wanted to be recognised as tribals and get due rights. “But we do not want to leave from here as we are at least safe here. We should get our rights to settle here,” he said.
Bhadradri Kothagudem district collector Anudeep Durishetty did not respond to text messages of THE WEEK in the matter.
Meanwhile, in his letter to the NCST, Choudhary has sought action by Chhattisgarh government as well as union government (as it was an inter-state matter) for the proper rehabilitation of the IDPs.
“State of Chhattisgarh needs to formally own up the responsibility of rehabilitation of IDPs, including compensating the host-state for requisite expenses. The Union of India may consider making a special monetary grant in accordance with Article 275(1) of Constitution of India.
Land Revenue and Rehabilitation belong to state-list while Social Security belongs to concurrent-list of Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The Union Government needs to take up rehabilitation of IDPs as part of the Confidence Building Measure towards internal peace.
MoHA should be the nodal agency for this task while NCST should play its constitutional role of continuous supervision of compliance in this regard (preferably on a monthly basis, and year-end as completion deadline).” Choudhary has urged in the letter.
He has also written to Chhattisgarh governor Anusuiya Uike and union tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda along with the signatures of about 600 IDPs, seeking intervention for survey and rehabilitation of IDPs. He has given an example of the rehabilitation plan drawn up by the union government last year (2020) for the Reang tribals who migrated from Mizoram to Tripura due to political violence.
