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Bhubaneswar, April 4: Dressed in their traditional gear and carrying arms, thousands of tribals from western Orissa today staged a protest rally on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg demanding action against non-tribals who have been availing facilities meant for the tribals using fake caste certificates.
An eight-member team of the tribals met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and submitted a memorandum containing 33 demands.
“We have been facing a lot of problems as the non-tribal people are obtaining the facilities meant for us. The state government had formed a state level scrutiny committee to detect such fake certificate cases, but it has taken action only against six persons during the last one year.
“So we demand that the government cancel all the fake certificates as per the Orissa Caste Certificate for STs/SCs Rule 1980 and the beneficiaries to be dismissed from their posts,” said Niranjan Bishi, secretary general of Paschim Orissa Adivasi Kalyan Mahasangh (POAKM).
The tribals even demanded that stringent action be taken against those fake tribals employed in government posts and elected political representatives as per the Indian Penal Code.
They also demanded reservation laws to be implemented in all private sectors and the backlog posts in the government jobs to be filled up through special drive for ST candidates.
“We want the government to establish tribal kanyashram and sevashram in each gram panchayat. Besides the lands of tribals grabbed by the non-tribals should be restored to genuine tribals by special settlement camp courts,” said Braj Kishore Singh Bhoi, president of Zilla Adivasi Kalyan Sangh (ZAKS), Sambalpur.
He also added that the tribals should be provided ‘record of rights’ under individual forest rights as per their occupation over any type of forestland.
The memorandum they gave to Naveen also contained demands such as stipend and exgratia for ST students from Classes I to V and an increase in the stipend amount for students from Classes VI to X.
Later an eight-member team of the tribals met Naveen and SC/ST minister Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha in the state secretariat and gave the memorandum.
“The chief minister agreed to some of our demands and instructed the officials to hold a RDC level meeting in Sambalpur to solve the problems,” said Bishi.
