Tribal villagers strongly oppose Chhattisgarh’s move to create food park, uproot earmarked signboard

In a resolution the Gram Sabha claimed that there are around 20 families living in the area designated for the food park, besides the existence of several trees and extensive grassland in the region.

RAIPUR: In a major setback to the Chhattisgarh government, the tribal villagers of Bevarti, barely 7 km away from the Kanker district headquarter, has strongly opposed the proposed ambitious project on food processing park in their area. They had passed a resolution in their Gram Sabha rejecting the move of the state government to set up a food park and the utility centre in their area and further cited that there was no proposal that came before them and that the administration has allegedly taken the decision without even consulting them. 

The agitated villagers not merely passed the resolution but uprooted the board fixed at the proposed site citing the land reserved (21 hectare) for food park by the district administration a couple of days ago. 
In a resolution the Gram Sabha claimed that there are around 20 families living in the area designated for the food park, besides the existence of several trees and extensive grassland in the region. The villagers are taking care of the area for the past 40 years as they are equally dependent on the given land for their livelihood, the resolution further stated. 

“No consent has been given by the Gram Sabha. The villagers refused to give away the land for the proposed food park”, asserted Bevarti sarpanch Sushila Netam. 

The district collector K L Chouhan despite repeated attempts was not available for his comments, however, the district administration cited that there was no need to seek the consent of each and every villager. “We will send our team to convince the villagers”, the officials stated. 

Ironically the villagers’ protest erupted when the chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was scheduled to visit Kanker district on Saturday. 

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his series of public meetings ahead of the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh promised to create food park in every district as one of the means to augment the income of farmers. The Congress government consequently has planned to set up over a hundred food processing units in the state in the coming years. 

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