Authorities harvest paddy for Adivasis
Rangpur Sugar Mills yesterday began harvesting paddy grown by Santals on its land amid no response from the indigenous community following a High Court order lifting restrictions on collecting their crops.
The local administration contacted Santal leaders repeatedly over the matter for the last one week but they said they won't collect crops unless their demands are met, said Abdul Hannan, upazila nirbahi officer of Gobindaganj.
The Santals want the removal of barbed-wire fence erected on a stretch of two kilometres of the mill's land from where they were evicted on November 6, said Abdus Samad, deputy commissioner.
They also demand withdrawal of all cases filed against Adivasis following the eviction drive.
Since it was not possible to fulfil the demands, the administration met yesterday and decided to harvest ripe paddy and then hand the crops over to the community people, the DC said, adding that in case Santals refuse to receive, the crops will be kept with someone reliable until the next court order.
Asked why Adivasis want removal of the fence, Philimon Baske, a leader of local indigenous people and vice-president of the Shahebganj-Bagdafarm land recovery committee, said they want the government to rehabilitate them on the land of their forefathers, where they had been evicted from.
“We asked the UNO to remove the fence to let Santal men in for harvesting paddy” but he didn't listen, Philimon said.
The Santal community planted Aman on the said land and they were supposed to harvest the crops, he said, disapproving of the harvest by the mill authorities.
A combined harvester machine was deployed around noon in presence of Shafiqul Islam, additional deputy commissioner; the UNO of Gobindaganj, Abdul Awal, managing director of the mill, and Jahid Ali Anseri, GM (extension) representative of Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation.
According to the November 17 HC order, the crops should be harvested by Wednesday.
It would take quite some time to harvest the crops on 45.5 acres by the machine operating at a rate of one acre per hour, said Abdul Awal.
Some Adivasis talked to the magistrate overseeing the harvest about how they would collect paddy but then left the scene to discuss the matter with indigenous leaders, he added.
In July, some 1,500 Santal men occupied nearly 100 acres of land of the Shahebganj sugarcane farm, which was acquired by the government in 1952 from their forefathers.
They built sheds and began living there.
The upazila administration and the mill authorities tried to evacuate the land but failed. There were clashes on several occasions between the farm's workers and Adivasis.
The Santals demand that the land be given back to them since an agreement signed in 1962 was violated by leasing it out for cultivation of crops other than sugarcane.
In the wake of recurring losses, the government in 2004 decided to declare a shutdown of the mill. The mill's authority then leased out land to influential people. Two years later, the government re-opened the mill that went into its full operation reclaiming the land.
Since then some local influentials have been encouraging indigenous people to claim their forefather's property, said people of the local indigenous community.
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