Bhatkal: ‘The problems of the occupants of the encroached lands in Bhatkal Taluka have been increasing every coming day; the government should immediately look into their problems and also fulfill all the eight demands put forward by them within a month’, claimed the Atikram Horata Samiti today while staging a protest outside the office of the Bhatkal Tahsildar. The Samiti members asked for justice and shouted slogans against the BJP rule. They alleged that the BJP govt. has failed to execute the orders of court on the forest land, the price of which had to be paid by the poor families.

The central government had passed the Forest Rights Act in the year 2006-08, but the state government is just wasting the time without executing the rule. Even after the rule has been put forward and executed by the central government, the occupants of encroached land in Bhatkal are continuously being exploited by the forest officials. The crops are also being chopped down. The government has even failed to pay the compensation to the family of Late Erappa Jatta Naik, an occupant of encroached land, who was from the Talmunagri of Koppa Panchayat.

Speaking on the occasion,the president of Atikram Horata Samithi, Rama Moger said that the government should make a list of all the encroached land occupants of Bhatkal Taluk under the Forest Rights Act. They should never be charged with any case under the panel 64A for any reason. The houses where these people reside should be registered. The Kombari Maratha Committee, who had been cultivating on the Kombari land from the British era, should also be registered for them. They strongly demanded all the cases on the encroached land occupants should be taken back which had been falsely charged against them. They also warned that if all the above demands were not fulfilled within a month’s time they would intensify their protests in the coming days.

The general secretary of social organization of Bhatkal, Majlis-e-Islah-o-Tanzeem, Mr. Mohiddin Altaf Kharuri also spoke on the occasion and presented all the eight demands asking for the immediate actions regarding this.



The protesters displayed various plea cards against the Forest Officers and shouted slogans against them.

Congress leader Jagdish Tengeri, Tanzeem GS Mohiddin Altaf, Advocate Subramanya Naik, Qayyum, Rizwan, Muneer, Devaraj Marathe, Ajeet Tandel, Nagesh Devadiga, Ajeet Bendegeri, Sulaiman and many others took part in the protest.

The protesters staged a dharna in front of the Tahsildar office from 11am to 1.30pm. Finally, the Assistant Commissioner of Bhatkal RP Manohar reached the protest spot and received the memorandum.

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