Other States - Rajasthan
'Dalit families evicted, houses razed'
Special Correspondent
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Seek action against culprits
Also demand land allotment
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JAIPUR: Thirteen Dalit families living under an open sky for the past
two months at Satpuda village in Chittaurgarh district of Rajasthan
after their houses on the government's surplus land were destroyed by
the people of dominant castes have demanded action against the
culprits and land allotment under the ongoing "Prashasan Gaon Ke Sang"
(administration with villages) campaign.
Influential people of Satpuda demolished the houses of Meghwal and
Kalbelia Dalits settled for about 20 years on the outskirts of the
village on October 7 allegedly at the instance of the administration.
No official assistance for rehabilitation or financial relief has been
provided to the victims so far.
A fact-finding team of the Centre for Dalit Rights (CDR), which
visited the village on Monday, found that the Dalit families were not
served with the mandatory notices for eviction under the Land Revenue
Act, while each of them possessed ration cards and had their names
listed in the electoral rolls.
Dalit families told the six-member team, led by CDR director Satish
Kumar, that the Tehsildar and revenue officials visited Satpuda on
October 6 and "verbally instructed" the villagers to raze the "illegal
houses". "The next day, the dominant people brought huge machines and
flattened the entire locality. We lost all of our belongings," victim
Mangi Ram told the team.
The landless Dalit families struggling hard to make ends meet had
requested the administration to allot land to them in 2004, but no
action has been taken as yet in this regard. On the other hand, the
administration has not paid any attention to the alleged encroachments
by the dominant Rajput community at a nearby surplus land.
Police apathy
Alleging that the higher caste people were "hand in glove" with
revenue officials in the village, the Dalit victims told the team that
the police had not registered any case against the perpetrators of the
crime and the latter were threatening them with dire consequences if
they tried to lodge complaint.
Mr. Kumar regretted that the State Government, which was "making tall
claims" about allotment of land free of cost to poor Dalits, had
remained a mute spectator to the forcible and illegal eviction of
Dalits by unauthorised people in Satpuda case.
The CDR team met Chittaurgarh Collector Arushi A. Malik and demanded
immediate relief to the Dalit families along with reconstruction of
their houses and registration of cases under the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, as well
disciplinary proceedings against the Tehsildar and revenue officials.
Mr. Kumar said the poor Dalit families deserved the benefit of the
Indira Awas Yojana after their inclusion in the below poverty line
category, while agricultural and residential land should be allotted
to them under the "Prashasan Gaon Ke Sang" campaign.
The CDR, which has also sent a memorandum with these demands to the
National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for
Scheduled Castes, has pointed out that no encroacher on the
government's surplus land can be evicted without the due process of
law.
Other members of the team were Gopal Ram Verma and Babulal Kiroriwal
of CDR, Khemraj Chaudhary of Prayas Sansthan, Bhanwar Meghwanshi of
Dalit Adivasi Adhikar Abhiyan and K. C. Sharma of the People's Union
for Civil Liberties.
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