As many as 65 labourers of Bhuliabhata village in Sinapali block of Nuapada district have been deprived of their right to work under MGNREGS because the Forest Department is not allowing them to work in a road improvement project.
The forester and guards seized the implements like pick axe, hoe and baskets of the workers, when they were working there on September 25 last.
"The Forest officials claimed that all the roads in our village belonged to them and snatched our implements," narrated the villagers, adding, "We don't understand how a road which we are using for generations belong to the department," they asked. Bhuliabhata is located in Nangalbod Gram Panchayat, which is considered to be infested by Maoists.
There are 395 people in 97 tribal and Dalit households in the village. The villagers have no legal right over the land which they have inherited from their forefathers. Major portion of the cultivable land in the village is up and medium lands, which do not retain adequate rain water and moisture.
The scanty rainfall this year has drastically affected the paddy crop, which has created a lot of pressure on the people to opt for early migration. Considering the demand for employment, the Panchayat had initiated a project for improvement of road from Bhuliabhata to Gaidharas under MGNREGS. "But, Forester B Dharua and guard lingaraj Bag arrived on the work site and opposed the work. The work site was thus shifted to another incomplete road, but there even the forest officials claimed their ownership and seized our implements," complained the workers.
"We have fund but we cannot initiate any project in that village as the Forest Department is claiming ownership everywhere," said the Project Director of DRDA.
All the families of the village have filed claims under Forest Right Act (FRA) for entitlement of the land they are cultivating, but the files are pending in the sub-divisional level committee (SDlC) for approval. "We have also filed community claims, but the administration has not yet approved of a single claim," complained the villagers. It is learnt that only 11 individual claims of the villagers have been approved by the district committee out of 120 applications. "Had they approved the community claim, the project under MGNREGS could have been done easily," said Meghanatha Kharshel, forest rights activist of Sinapali.
However, ABDO of Sinapali block Mrutyunjaya Panda said that a small portion of the road comes under the forest map and the rest is under revenue.
"We will be migrating early this year if work is not provided," said the workers.