Bhatia: Farewell to office, but crusade will go on

MUMBAI: Senior IAS officer Arun Bhatia retires on Saturday but is continuing his anti-corruption campaign till the last day in office.
In his latest campaign he has taken up the cause of tribals. A number of tribals in Maharashtra have to bribe government officials to cultivate their land, says Mr Bhatia who is the director of the Tribal Research and Training Institute.
Mr Bhatia, who has been exposing corruption in high places, said the government is not implementing the decision to grant land ownership to tribals who had earlier been termed as encroachers.The decision applies to alleged encroachers between 1972 and 1978.
They are not given land ownership on the ground that they do not have documentary evidence. Mr Bhatia said the government officials themselves destroyed the evidence and are now asking tribals to produce it or pay bribes.
His findings are based on a survey he and his team of officials had carried out. In Dhule district most of the 11,000 alleged encroachers have been held ineligible for grant of land titles.
In the past it was in the interest of the encroacher and the forest official not to create evidence of land ownership. The Forest Act arms officials with power to impose a fine or imprison a tribal and destroy the crop if he is an encroacher.
The government officials are now using the threat of arrest to take bribes from tribals. The Tribal Research Institute questioned some farmers regarding the bribes being paid now, the period of their encroachment on forest land and the reasons for lack of evidence to support their encroachment.
It found that some Adivasis paid bribes after taking loan from money-lenders. Without titles to land the tribals are unable to access institutional credit and become victims of money lenders or agents who obtain loans illegally from banks and deduct huge commissions from the loaned amount. This has happened in Chandrapur district.
Mr Bhatia said Adivasis should be given land ownership unless evidence to the contrary is available and if they are found to be staying in the village during the period of encroachment.