Tribals hit hard by tardy implementation of land rights

The much touted pro-tribal development plank of the government of giving land titles to tribals to curb Maoism is proving to be mere sloganeering.

The records accessed by the Centre show that despite having a Central Act nearly all the Maoist affected states have performed badly in ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities as title deeds for land rights still have not been distributed to the majority of tribal population.

Among the worst performer states is Bihar that till July 31, 2014 managed to distribute land title deeds only to 1.67 percent of the total claims. Of the total 2930 claims, Bihar government rejected 1644 claims, disposed of 1672 but could manage to distribute only 28 title deeds.

Uttar Pradesh (19.51%), Maharashtra (34.18%), Madhya Pradesh (40.28%) and Chhattisgarh (43.73%) are the other laggard states that have not been able to distribute title deeds to the majority of claimants.

Out of a total of 92,433 claims, Uttar Pradesh has distributed only 17,705 land titles, while Maharashtra has succeeded in giving only 1.43 lakh land titles out of 3.48 lakh of total claims. The worst Maoist affected Chhattisgarh has managed to give land title deeds to only 3.12 lakh people against 7.56 lakh claims.

The poor performance of all the Maoist-affected states, barring the exception of Odisha that has distributed title deeds to 70.71% of total claimants, will be discussed in detail in a high level meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting on "the state of Left Wing Extremism" will be chaired by union home minister Rajnath Singh.

"The Centre is aware that tardy progress in settling land deed claims can have serious implications. It can result in tribals lose faith in the government administration and push them back into the Maoist fold. The meeting is expected to address this issue," said a senior home ministry official.

Recognising the need to equip tribals and forest dwellers with land ownership and forest produce rights to wean them away from Maoist ideology, the Central government had enacted Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act in 2006.

Distribution of land title deeds, specifically is meant to protect tribals and forest dwellers from the nexus of corrupt local administration, middle man and forest mafia that kept exploiting them during past several decades and virtually pushed them to join Maoist movement.