In the dignified presence of President Droupadi Murmu, Madhya Pradesh witnessed a historic moment on November 15, 2022, when under the leadership of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the PESA Act was implemented to give rights of water, forest and land to the tribal community in Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh is the pioneer in the country to implement the PESA Act.
The PESA Act has been implemented in 89 tribal-dominated development blocks of 20 districts of the state. The PESA Act is becoming a means of economic and social upliftment of the tribal brothers and sisters and making them empowered and powerful. This act is in the interest of all the citizens of the society. It is not against any citizen of non-tribal community. The PESA Act will strengthen such tribal brothers and sisters who were left behind in the race for development.
According to the rules of the PESA Act, now the Patwari and the beat guard of the forest department will have to bring the map of village land, Khasra, B-1 copy to the village once in a year and show it to the Gram Sabha, so that no one is able to do any irregularity in the records of the land. If any discrepancy is found, the Gram Sabha will have the right to recommend correction of the record. The Patwari will also have to read out the details related to the land in the meeting of the Gram Sabha.
There is a provision in the PESA Act that the permission of the Gram Sabha will be necessary for the survey and land acquisition to be done in any project of the government's plan. Now no one will be able to grab the land of any tribal citizen by deceit and force. If someone does so, the Gram Sabha will have the right to get it back. The PESA Act will eliminate the possibility of converting the religion by allurement and then grabbing the land of the tribal society. The Gram Sabha will decide whether or not to give the mineral quarry, which includes sand, ballast stone quarry, on contract or not. The society will have the first right on the mine, then the sister-daughter of the village and then the man.
The state government has made ponds in every village. The complete management of these ponds will be done by the Gram Sabha. The Gram Sabha will decide whether to rear fish or cultivate water chestnuts in the pond. The income from the pond will be given to the Gram Sabha. The management of the pond which irrigates 100 acres of agricultural area will now be done by the Gram Sabha, not by the Irrigation Department.
