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Tribals set to get back land by Mehedi Hedaytullah

The North Dinajpur district administration has started the proceedings to return more than 70 acres of land to its rightful tribal owners in Ramganj. This is the first time that the administration has taken up the initiative to restore illegally occupied tribal land, an official claimed. On January 16, the subdivisional officer of Islampur, Partha Ghosh, wrote to the district project officer-cum-district welfare officer to begin the proceedings for restoration of the land under the provisions of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955. The law stipulates that a tribal can transfer his land to a non-tribal only after a hearing is conducted to ensure that the seller had been adequately compensated. In case of Bhadrakali tea estate with its 77.42 acres, no hearing was held during the take-over. “There were allegations that the land had been illegally occupied by a tea garden owner. We conducted an inquiry but as the management could not prove their ownership of the land, it has been decided that the land would be restored to the rightful owners,” Ghosh said. The government move comes after the Adivasi Jami Raksha Committee (AJRC) occupied Bhadrakali garden in Ramganj last year alleging that it had been illegally occupied by non-tribals. The garden owner is a Siliguri-based businessman, B. Agarwal. The AJRC said in 1996, the 44 tribal owners of the land were made to sign on Rs 10 stamp papers which said the plots were being taken on lease for two years. “They paid Rs 200 to Rs 500 to the tribal owners. When at the end of two years we wanted the land back, they refused to return it,” said AJRC secretary Ruhidas Oraon. The AJRC had also submitted documents to prove that over 4,500 acres of tribal land across the district is illegally held by small tea garden owners. When reached on his cellphone, Manoj Kumar Tyagi, a member of the garden management, said he was in Rajasthan and did not know anything about the government decision. “I cannot comment,” Tyagi said. Oraon said repeated movements during the Left Front rule had not yielded any response. From 1995 to 2001, now minister for mass education extension and library services Chowdhury Abdul Karim wore a bandana to the Assembly to protest the conversion of agricultural land (tribal or otherwise) to small tea gardens. “After Mamata Banerjee took over as chief minister, we sat on a dharna and met her in Calcutta. She then asked the divisional commissioner of Jalpaiguri to initiate an investigation,” Oraon said. Today, Karim said: “The administration has done the right thing. Everyone should follow the law.” Oraon said once the land was restored, the tea garden would continue to function under the tribal owners so that the 52 labourers do not lose their source of livelihood. It would be called Adivasi Joutha Tea Garden, he said.


The Telegraph, 31 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120131/jsp/siliguri/story_15071615.jsp

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