Almost 18 months after the Diddalli tribal agitation rocked the State and forced the government to promise a time-bound rehabilitation package, the community remains in a lurch, forcing many of its members to rethink their next course of action.
With the Assembly elections nearing, the tribal community is seething at both the Congress and the BJP for failing to keep their promises to suitably rehabilitate them.
The agitation had hit the headlines, forcing human rights activists to descend on Diddalli to espouse the community’s cause. But the condition of the tribals has not changed even a little and is virtually a non-issue in the polls, according to Sreekanth of Development Through Education (DEED), an NGO spearheading tribal causes.
As many as 577 tribal families at Diddalli were evicted from Devamachi forests as encroachers, following which there was a major agitation in December 2016. The State stepped in to douse the fire and promised a rehabilitation package, for which land was identified.
‘Forgotten issue’
Though work progressed at a feverish pace in the first few months after the agitation, it stagnated eventually and there has been no progress since, according to Prabhu, an activist campaigning for tribal rights.
There were around 11,200 voters in Diddalli, but they have now been relocated to Basavanahalli near Kushalnagar and Madalapura near Byadgotta. “Though makeshift housing was provided for a few, not all have benefited...,” Mr. Sreekanth said.
He said there is anger against both the Congress, which was in power in the State at the time of the agitation, and the BJP, whose candidates were the local MLAs and MP. The stakeholders are also peeved that both parties have used tribals for political gains while conveniently ignoring their plight come election time.
The Diddalli agitation was an organised struggle, not confined to any haadi or hamlet and representative of the larger cause of tribals
The NGOs fighting for the tribals say it is a long-term struggle to correct a historical injustice and hence, they would press on with their demands, elections or no elections. But whether the trial anger will manifest in the voting pattern (traditionally the community has supported the Congress) remains to be seen.
