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Thane: Several hundreds of tribal villagers from the four districts of Thane, Palghar, Raigad, and Nashik on Tuesday carried out a unique dual agitation at their respective taluka headquarters and before the officials of the Tribal Development Commissioner (TDC) and tonsured their heads as a symbol of performing the last rites to protest against non-fulfillment of their long pending demands.
The protesters organized “Terava” the 13th day ritual with all formalities complete including “Pinda Daan” for the “dead” tribal development department and the Tribal Development Corporation which had driven them to such a pathetic state.
The simultaneous agitation was also organized under the umbrella of Shramajivi Sanghatana an organization which works for the uplift of the tribals in the state, and has been since several years fighting for their cause.
The agitators include the priests who performed the last rights and also men dressed in mourning attire and also women accompanied sung mourning hymns and songs and banged the plates and songs condemning the attitude of the department.
The tribals who carried huge banners and placards condemned the nonperforming government which was insensitive.
The tribal agitators followed all norms of the social distancing and use of face mask and other Covid norms during the agitation. As it was a death ritual there was no untoward incident like slogan shouting at the venue.
Office bearers of the Sanghatana took the responsibility at different places including the President Rambhau Varna and Vijay Jadhav, the General Secretary at Nashik, Youth leader Pramod Pawar at Bhiwandi, Ashok Sapte, Thane district president at Thane, Palghar president Suresh Renjad at Palghar, Keshav Nankar Executive President at Vasai and Balaram Bhoir the General Secretary at Pen and others.
Talking to the media Varna said that the agitation being carried out at least two dozen locations simultaneously in all the four districts, including the tehsil offices and the offices of the Tribal Development Corporation.
A large number of women who were visibly annoyed also participated in the agitation, he said.
He said that all the demands of the tribals including the forest rights, distribution of forest rights, Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS), educational needs, medical assistance, ration cards for all, food grains which were dear to the heart of the tribal villagers have fallen on deaf ears. We have tried out all kinds of methods including dharnas, agitations, peaceful protest, approach the courts and nothing worked and hence took to this “Terava” to perform the rights of the dead tribal development department and corporation he further remarked.
He also said that enough was enough and the department should now stop the game of shunting papers from one place to another without any results and giving the benefits to the tribals he further added.
