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Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 21 November 2016

JAMMU: Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today directed the Deputy Commissioners of Jammu division to ensure that the poor nomadic communities living in forest areas for decades together are not harassed and dislocated during anti-encroachment drive. The direction came during a review meeting the Chief Minister held with the Deputy Commissioners and District SSPs of Jammu division here today.

The Chief Minister asked the Deputy Commissioners that though they should go after big land-grabbers whole-hog who have encroached huge chunks at prime places but the poor and hapless nomads who have been protecting the forests for decades should not be harassed. Mehbooba Mufti asked the Deputy Commissioners that an otherwise prudent administrative action aimed at retrieving state properties should not be portrayed as a campaign against a nomadic hapless community which has all along been protecting the forests and whose socio-economic activity is also closely linked to forests.

Quoting Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister said the Prime Minister has also made it clear that nobody has the right to snatch away the land of tribals where they have been living for decades. “It's the priority of our government to ensure that tribals get their right. No one has right to snatch away their lands,” the Prime Minister had said while inaugurating the first National Tribal Carnival at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi last month.