The third national conference of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) concluded here on Thursday with a call to the government to initiate a dialogue with all the forces, including the Maoists, that do not have faith in the Constitution to join the mainstream.
The meeting held at Ukkunagaram and attended by, among others, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, AARM chairperson Baja Ban Riyan, vice-chairperson Brinda Karat, and Tripura East MP Jitendra Chaudhury said that developmental activity and proper implementation of welfare measures were the key factors to improve the socio-economic conditions of 11.5 crore adivasis.
The meeting appealed to the government to withdraw cases “framed” against innocent adivasis in Chhattisgarh and other States branding them as supporters of the Maoists.
“In Chhattisgarh alone there are 700 adivasis languishing in jail without trial for a long time,” Mr. Chaudhury said.
Briefing reporters on the deliberations, he said AARM would be strengthened at the grassroots level to foil attempts by the NDA Government to dilute laws to snatch away lands belonging to the girijans, thereby paving the way to loot their minerals such as bauxite.
Accusing the RSS-BJP of siphoning off the funds meant for girijan welfare, he said they would launch a bigger agitation for proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act and MGNREGA for giving employment for a minimum number of days to the poor people.
Job creation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was celebrating three years in office with fanfare, had failed to provide jobs to the educated girijans, Mr. Chaudhury said.
Despite the promise to create two crore jobs every year, it had been confirmed that job creation witnessed the lowest growth during the past three years, he added.
