Supreme Court to hear fresh plea on Monday to protect forest dwellers
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear a fresh plea seeking a direction to authorities not to evict forest dwellers and set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into alleged illegal acquisition of lands belonging to tribals on Monday.
On March 5, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna took cognisance of the plea, filed by Chhattisgarh-based Tarika Tarangini Lark, a which sought a direction to the Centre not to allot possession of tribals’ forest lands to anyone other than ‘adivasis’ in that area.
In the latest petition, Larka has alleged that authorities in Tamnar of Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh have forcibly grabbed a large area of tribal land and handed it to outsiders.
It has sought restoration of land acquired by the government from tribals in Chhattisgarh for mining and other purposes and to provide them the value of mined minerals.
“For this, they adopted simple strategy declaring forest dweller as non-adivasi to grab their land in the forest and village by rejecting their claim upon land,” according to the plea.
The petition has also sought setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) comprising retired judges of the apex court to look into the alleged illegal acquisition of land.
It has also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR under the provisions of the SC/ST Act to investigate the matters brought to light by the SIT and to file their report before the apex court.