New Delhi:
Twelve tribal homes demolished, crops allegedly destroyed and a Union minister sitting with grieving families against an action carried out under his own party's state government. The demolition in the Kosmi village of Madhya Pradesh's Budhni assembly constituency on Sunday drew an angry response from Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, even as forest authorities defended the operation as the removal of illegal huts built after a government plantation was destroyed.
"The limits of oppression and injustice have been crossed in my constituency," Chouhan, a four-time Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said after meeting the affected families.
Kosmi falls within his parliamentary constituency, Vidisha, and Budhni is the Assembly seat he represented for years as the chief minister.
"Homes where the joyful sounds of children echoed until the morning are now filled with their screams. Women are weeping and beating their chests in grief," he said after the Forest Development Corporation carried out the demolition in the afternoon.
Women broke down when Shivraj, popularly called "mama" (maternal uncle) arrived at the village, where families from the Barela tribal community said they have lived for years.
He sat at the protest site, heard their complaints and called Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Ashok Barnwal.
The affected families described homes and farmland on which their lives depended, while the government described an encroachment on forest land.
According to the sources in the forest department, a plantation was established in 2021. It is alleged that 10 tribal families from Singhpur destroyed the plantation, began cultivation and erected huts.
Forest offence cases were registered and eviction notices issued before the structures were removed. The official account refers to 10 families, while reports from the village describe 12 houses being demolished.
Chouhan, however, questioned how the operation had gone ahead despite his earlier intervention to prevent the demolition.
According to a statement from his office, forest and district administration officials had attempted similar action earlier, but he had instructed them not to demolish the families' homes.
He also spoke to state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal and said he would raise the matter with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
The Union Agriculture Minister alleged that the damage extended beyond the houses crops had been destroyed, the families' labour trampled upon and a well filled with soil.
Calling those responsible callous, he asked whether they would understand the suffering only if their own homes were demolished and their children left crying.
"God will not forgive them," he said. "We will make every possible effort to secure justice for the affected families."
Shivraj demanded action against the forest personnel responsible and expressed anger that no senior Forest Department or district administration official was present when he visited the site. He promised that the demolished homes would be rebuilt and that food and temporary accommodation would be arranged until permanent housing was available.
Madhya Pradesh Assembly Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar alleged that there was a tussle between Chouhan and Mohan Yadav, and that the tribals were bearing the brunt of it.
“Due to the infighting within the BJP government, poor tribal families face the threat of being rendered homeless,” the Congress leader alleged.