With the popularity of the Raman Singh government at its lowest, over the past few months Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have been busy finding innovative ways to appease and consolidate the party vote bank.
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In a step that is being widely viewed as an attempt to maintain its dominance among the tribal population of Chhattisgarh, the government has decided to drop criminal charges against 2,20,613 people, registered under various forest and wildlife protection laws. Of these, 1,08,890 are Scheduled Tribes, while 36,298 belong to the Scheduled Caste community. With this move, the government is set to lose Rs 12.76 crore in terms of fines imposed on the suspects booked under the various forest and wildlife protection laws.
While the entire nation is protesting loss of tree cover and illegal poaching, this step taken by the Raman Singh government has only been successful in shielding criminals involved in destruction of forest resources.
However, the chief minister defends his decision to drop the charges by saying that “a majority of these cases had been pending for many years and as most of these offenders were involved in minor crimes, we decided to let them off with a warning.”
BJP sources said the recent losses in Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha and Kota Assembly bypolls led to this step to shield the tribal population. “While the Congress has maintained a stronghold in the non-tribal districts, the BJP doesn’t want to lose its hold over tribal constituencies, which have been our supporters,” the sources added.
They pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party was brought to power in the last Assembly polls due to the votes it received from Scheduled Tribes constituencies. It won 26 ST seats, while the Congress could only secure eight seats.
Surprisingly, the state Congress has been silent over the issue. No senior leader is willing to go on record to criticise the government since the Scheduled Tribes enjoy an overwhelming majority in the state with about 35 per cent of the total population being classified under the category.
However, animal lovers and conservationists have been crying foul in what is being termed as government’s “political stand over the issue”.
Though the Raman Singh government repeatedly claims that the state has one of the highest green covers in the country, with about 45 per cent of its total area under forests, such policies could cause the state to lose its precious forest cover.
