A Historic Injustice Perpetrated on Adivasis

After series of village meetings and local demonstrations, an adivasi delegation from Jharkhand consisting of Prakash Toppo, Suresh Oroan and Suresh Munda, led by the state secretary of the Party, met the union minister for Defence A.K.Antony on April 2 at New Delhi and submitted a joint petition signed by 552 affected adivasis from seven villages around Ranchi airport demanding the return of 1200 acres of adivasi lands occupied by the defence establishment. In response to an earlier memorandum of the state committee of the Party, the Defence minister wrote back to Brinda Karat, MP that the lands belong to Defence establishment and that some of the adivasis, who are cultivating a small portion of the lands, were encroachers. This joint petition of the adivasis exposed, with documentary evidences from British period, the hollowness of the claim of the Defence establishment.
This is a story of historic injustice done to the adivasis in British India which continued even in independent India. During Second World War, the headquarters of Eastern Command was shifted temporarily from Kolkata to Ranchi. Under Defence of India rule, using extraordinary power, thousands of acres of adivasi lands were requisitioned by the British government for this purpose. Adivasi houses were demolished, trees were cut and an airstrip was constructed for Defence aircraft landing. Since the lands were requisitioned, there was neither any rehabilitation of adivasis nor any compensation was given to them. The lands were never acquired under Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The lands continued to remain in the name of adivasis, but occupied by the Defence even after the war ended, India became independent and a republic. In 1962, the temporarily constructed airstrip of the Defence at Ranchi was handed over to civil aviation ministry where present Ranchi Airport is situated.
This led to an abnormal situation which was continuously ignored by the Defence and Civil Aviation ministries of the central government. The adivasis are having khatiyans (land records) and, with the hope that their lands would be returned to them some day, have been paying land taxes, earlier to Bihar government and at present to Jharkhand government, of the lands which are in occupation of Defence and even of the lands where present Ranchi Airport is situated and where aircrafts are landing! State governments issued receipts to them on regular basis. Copies of these documents were submitted to the Defence minister.
07/04/07 J S Majumdar/People's Democracy

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Apr 2007