MP forms cabinet committee on forest dwellers after SC order
BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday constituted a cabinet committee to propose an action plan in view of the Supreme Court order for the eviction of about one million tribal and other forest-dwelling families in 17 states.
The decision came after Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia wrote to Nath, expressing concerns regarding the possible eviction of over 350,000 people in MP, whose land rights claims have been rejected under the Forest Rights Act.
The apex court last week asked the governments of 17 states to evict from forests by July 12 an estimated one million tribal and other households whose claims of the right to live in forests were rejected.
The cabinet committee in Madhya Pradesh comprises ministers Bala Bachchan, PC Sharma, Umang Singhar and Omkar Singh Markam.
“[The] committee is constituted to propose next action in
light of the Supreme Court’s order regarding rejected claims of Scheduled Tribes people on forest land,” a Madhya Pradesh government order said.
On Saturday, Scindia wrote to Nath, saying the apex court’s order on February 20 concerns over a million tribals and other forest dwellers in the country.
“These include 3.5 lakh families from MP and the reason behind this was that the then BJP administration did not grant recognition to the claims of these people,” said Scindia. He said as per the documents submitted to the Supreme Court, the claims of over 0.2 million scheduled tribes and over 0.1 million forest dwellers were rejected in MP. He added the rejections were more than in any other state.
Scindia said the Central government did not present its plea for forest dwellers. He added its “carelessness” will impact their lives and urged Nath to take all possible measures to protect the rights of these people including the filing of a revision petition.
Madhya Pradesh BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said, “Blaming the central government for the apex court order is not correct. Kamal Nath government should look into the judgment and take steps to protect the rights of affected instead of blaming the BJP for everything.” YELAHANKA: The indigenous light combat aircraft, Tejas, and a few other air force aircraft could soon have new locally produced tyres. India’s largest tyre maker, MRF, is aiming to finish the final validation trials of the nose and main wheels for the Tejas by the yearend before getting approval from the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) to begin supplies, two MRF executives said at Aero India 2019 that concluded in Yelahanka on Sunday. The Tejas currently uses Dunlop tyres. The Chennai-based MRF is also looking at developing and supplying tyres for Jaguar fighter jets, Hawk advanced jet trainers, Ilyushin-76 heavy-lifters, and Antonov-32 transport planes, said MRF senior GM (product development) K Thomas Mathen. These aircraft use imported tyres. MRF has been supplying its Aero Muscle tyres for Su-30s since 2013, advanced light helicopter Dhruv (2014) and Chetak choppers since 2009. The tyres are manufactured at an MRF plant at Medak in Telangana.