The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a final reminder and sought for Action Taken Reports (ATRs) from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Chief Secretaries of Chhatishgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh on the issue of prolonged plight and ordeal faced by the victims of Salwa-Judum.Moved by a petition filed by civil rights activist amd Supreme Court lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, the Apex Human Rights Panel of India passed the order.The petitioner, Tripathy, has sought for an intervention of the Commission on issues concerning large number of tribals, mostly Scheduled Tribes (STs), who are alleged to have been internally displaced from Chhattisgarh due to Salwa Judum.The plight of the displaced people due to police and Naxal violence in 2004-05 has been continuing till today. As many as 55,000 tribals had to leave Chhattisgarh and migrate to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, These internally displaced tribals are living in forest area of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, said Tripathy.These tribals have been deprived of the benefits of social welfare schemes like job cards, ration cards, health insurance cards, potable drinking water etc despite the lapse of more than seventeen years of displacement.Tripathy pointed out that on July 2011, the Supreme Court banned “Salwa-Judum” and directed the state of Chhattisgarh to disband any militia force founded to combat Maoist guerrillas. However, the victims of Salwa-Judum still languish with prolonged injustice.Contending the major unresolved issues which are being faced by these displaced families are their land and tribal status, the petition stated that even though these victims are entitled for forest rights under Forest Rights Act, most of them don’t have Individual Forest Rights (IFR) or Community Forest Rights (CFR) and the issue of ST certificates to the displaced STs.
Source link
