NEW DELHI: With the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) receiving a significant number of complaints on land alienation and displacement, the Commission has started a project to investigate and analyse the systemic discrimination faced by tribals in identified parts of the country.
The key focus areas of monitoring will be the displacement of tribals, alienation and transfer of tribal land, and financial inclusion of tribals.
The other concerns raised by the Commission were atrocities committed against tribals, ‘fraudulent certification’, transfer of jobs of the scheduled tribes' population, and the communities being deprived of their benefits in some parts of the country.
The Commission has identified the sites of Rourkela Steel Plant in Orissa and the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh to examine the issue of displacement of tribals.
According to the Commission, subsequent generations of tribals displaced from the Rourkela Steel Plant are still being given compensation at the rate of `135 for multiple acres of land.
The team will also visit Chattisgarh to investigate cases of land alienation faced by tribals and if they have been compensated fairly.
Maharastra has also recorded a significant number of land grabbing cases, according to the NCST. The project will look at some of the aspirational districts to analyse the situation and examine how the financial inclusion of tribals can be improved.