Displaced During Salwa Judum, 31,000 Bastar Tribals Shun Chhattisgarh Govt’s ‘Homecoming’ Offer
The representatives of these displaced families made their intentions clear to the Bastar administration, which has initiated the process to rehabilitate them in their native villages, at a high-level official meeting, held at district headquarters of Dantewada in south Bastar on Wednesday.
Raipur: Majority of around 31,000 tribals of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, forced to migrate to the neighbouring states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during the ‘Salwa Judum’ movement, -a Gondi term translated into English as ‘Peace Journey- of 2005, have virtually shunned the ‘homecoming’ campaign launched by the state government to bring them back to their native places.
The representatives of these displaced families made their intentions clear to the Bastar administration, which has initiated the process to rehabilitate them in their native villages, at a high-level official meeting, held at district headquarters of Dantewada in south Bastar on Wednesday.
“We have settled down in our adopted states for the last 20 years. A new generation has come since then who are firmly rooted in their places of birth. It is not possible to return to our villages to start life afresh now”, Koram Kosa, one of the representatives of the displaced families who attended the meeting, said.
Around 70 people, representatives of the displaced families, attended the meeting and majority of them have echoed Kosa’s feelings, officials said.
They want the Chhattisgarh government to coordinate with the governments of their adopted state to arrange caste certificates and land ‘pattas’ for them in places of settlements, an official spokesman said.
However, the migrated families who are willing to return to their native villages in Bastar will be welcomed, Bastar commissioner Daman Singh said.
Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj who also attended the meeting, said that the process of bringing the displaced families back to their native villages has just begun and efforts will continue in this direction.
Some pockets in south Bastar had witnessed mass migration of tribal families during the ‘Salwa Judum’ movement, a civil vigilante campaign against the Maoists.
Tribals who had taken part in the movement were targeted by the Maoists who had forced them to leave their villages.
Some of these displaced families were given shelter in the camps, fortified by security, by the state government.
However, the majority of the displaced families migrated to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and settled down in the forested villages in these states.
A survey of the displaced families of south Bastar comprising Dantewada, Sukma and Bijapur districts was conducted by the Bastar administration as per a directive by the National Scheduled Tribe Commission.
The survey has found displacement of 6,939 tribal families constituting a population of 31,098, an official spokesman said.
In a bid to woo the displaced tribal families back to their native villages, the state government is planning to include them in the rehabilitation policy for the surrendered Naxals to extend the benefits of home and agricultural land, sources said.
