A day after Gothi Koyas were evicted by forest and police officials using force at Jalagalancha area in Pasra forests, political parties and tribal organisation activists staged a rasta roko on NH 163 bringing the entire traffic on the route to a standstill. They also filed a complaint with the local police against the forest officials who forcefully evicted them. They demanded that the government should provide an ex gratia of ` 2 lakh and a permanent house to every evicted family.
The district administration deployed a huge contingent of police at the dharna venue and even tried to remove the protestors forcefully. Tension prevailed for sometime when the agitators had an argument with police perover calling off the agitation.
Despite the stir, district administration was firm that the Guthi Koyas would not be allowed to go back to the forest area. District Collector A Murali made it clear that the evicted families would not be allowed to stay in deep forest area and that they would be rehabilitated. “We want to bring them to the mainstream for development. We are trying in every possible way that they are being shown an alternative revenue land to stay. We are even making efforts to provide minimum facilities and employment to them in departmental work,” he said.
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