Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 22: The "cornered" BJP is patting its back and claiming that it raised the issue of Tribal Affairs Department and the controversial minutes of its review committee in the Tuesday Cabinet meeting.
The minutes of the meetings had, among other things, said:
1. "Hon'ble Chief Minister directed the officers that till a formal Tribal Policy is formulated and issued, tribal population shall not be disturbed/dislocated. In case it becomes necessary to dislocate any member or family of tribal population, the same should be done in prior consultation with Tribal Affairs Department";
2. "Hon'ble Chief Minister directed IGP, Jammu, police authorities and all Deputy Commissioners not to provide any police protection for eviction of tribals without the approval obtained from Tribal Affairs Department"; and
3. "HM FCSCA and Tribal Affairs further submitted that the Department is receiving complaints regarding misuse of Section 188 RPC and Animal Cruelty Act against tribals as animal rearing is their profession and they are required to transport their animals from one place to another during seasonal migration. The HCM directed that due care be taken while dealing with such cases".
It's true that the BJP ministers for the first time in three years mustered some courage and sought to show their strength in the meeting by drawing the attention of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who had presided over the meeting of the Tribal Affairs Department on February 14, 2018, to the issue, which had disturbed and alarmed the people of Jammu province, but there is hardly any cause which should make the BJP pat its back.
During the meeting, "some BJP ministers", according to credible sources, "did ask the Chief Minister to withdraw the controversial minutes of the meeting, as they were tampered with and not approved of my the MoS Tribal Affairs, Ajay Nanda of the BJP". Sources also said that "Health and Medical Education Minister Bali Bhagat also submitted a 2-page note on the whole controversy seeking withdrawal of the minutes".
However, all of their pleas that the government should issue an order to the effect that the controversial minutes of the meeting were withdrawn went down the drain, as the government, according to sources close to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, "refused to issue any such order".
As per sources, the PDP ministers held their ground firmly and said "the matter was closed as the order only contained minutes of the meeting and there was no official order". "The government refused to accept the BJP ministers' demand seeking issuance of an official order withdrawing the minutes of the meeting," sources privy to the February 14 meeting said.
It was on March 7 that Jammu-based High Court lawyer Ankur Sharma had made a startling disclosure, along with the 5-page minutes of the meeting, that the state government had accorded administrative immunity to encroachers of state and forest land and promoted bovine smuggling.
If the BJP really wants to allay the genuine fears of the people of Jammu, it has to make the government withdraw the minutes of the Tribal Affairs Department. There is no other way to allay their fears. |
