10 adivasis demand their land back from Lavasa

The Pune district administration will issue notices to Lavasa Corporation Limited and others after 10 adivasi farmers on Tuesday staked their claim to get back their land which had been transferred to the Lavasa hill city project.

The Maval sub divisional officer (SDO), Sanjay Patil, held a hearing attended by the 10 farmers. Spread over 100 sq km, the Lavasa project is 65km from Pune in the seven hills in the backwaters of Warasgaon dam with 60km of lakefront. Work of this planned hill city is currently stalled over the issue of environmental clearance.

National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) has been alleging for over three years that land belonging to adivasis has been illegally transferred to Lavasa. Against this backdrop, the hearing before the SDO in the city and claim by 10 adivasi farmers to get their land back has assumed significance.

Patil told reporters on Tuesday that the district administration had held a meeting of Adivasis near Lavasa project and told them that if their land is transferred to some other persons, they could still get it back under The Maharashtra Restoration of Land to Scheduled Tribes Act, 1974.

The administration checked land transactions related to the project and sent notices to 17 adivasi farmers to be present for the hearing on May 24 and stake their claim to the land with necessary evidence.

“The district administration would issue notices to other parties who have directly or indirectly bought land from these tribals. In some cases, the land has been transferred from private persons to Lavasa. Notices would be issued to Lavasa too. The respondents would be asked to give their say on the issue,” he added.

He said that on Tuesday the hearing was conducted on restoration of land to adivasis. More adivasi farmers can claim their land. If the original landowner is an adivasi, then his land cannot be sold to non-tribals as per legal provisions and hence, such land transferred to others would be restored under the law.
Convenor of NAPM, Sunitee SR, who led the adivasis in staking claim for the land, thanked the state government for its positive attitude in restoring land to the adivasis.

She said land of these adivasis was transferred over 10 years from 1990 and most of them did not understand the transactions. They only realised that they had lost the land. The hearing on Tuesday is a major step in restoring the land of adivasis,

she added. Activists Vinay RR and
Vishwambhar Choudhary were present.