“Most of the security camps in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, post 2019, have been set up on private or community properties of tribals without their consent and in severe violation of existing laws,” according to a citizen’s report released in New Delhi on Monday (August 12, 2024).
The report, ‘Security and Insecurity, Bastar Division, Chhattisgarh, 2023-24’, published after a fact-finding team visited the areas, says the proliferation of paramilitary camps, set up in violation of several laws in Bastar and other Adivasi (tribal) areas, is an “imposition” on local Adivasis.
The Government has said that setting up paramilitary camps is necessary for laying roads, constructing schools, health centers and voting booths, all of which are needed for state services.
The people told the fact-finding team that they are not opposed to roads but would like a say in how and where these roads are being built. “The layout and width of the roads makes quiet clear in many cases that they are meant to facilitate mining operations. On the one hand these camps and roads are being built without people’s consent and on the other, as of 2022, 51 mining leases have been granted in the Bastar region, of which only 14 are with the public sector,” the report said.
It said the situation was similar in Jharkhand’s West Singbhum district, where at least 30 camps have been set up in the last four years in Saranda and Kolhan forests. Most of these camps have been set up in areas that currently fall in the conservation or no-mining zone as per the Management Plan for Sustainable Mining 2018.
“The peaceful democratic protests against the camps have been ignored or worse suppressed using brutal methods, from lathi-charge to burning the sites to firing on the protestors. It is very apparent that the real purpose of the camps is to protect and promote corporate interests, particularly mining interests, at the cost of Adivasi lives and constitutional rights,” members of the fact-finding team said at a press conference in New Delhi.
“There are rampant human rights violations in the proximity of camps. Harassment by security forces have become common. Even the weekly market, which is the lifeline for the communities, and the regular purchases have been subject to monitoring and police controls,” they added.
The activists said that the need of the hour was to respect the law and put an end to human rights violation and called for implementation of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act of 2006 and the Forest Rights Act 2006 in letter and spirit.
Published - August 12, 2024 10:25 pm IST
