Salher tribals allege communal bias

Tribal villagers in Salher village, located 120 km from Nashik, are allegedly being subjected to discrimination as they have converted to Christianity.
The region is dominated by tribals who lead a hand-to-mouth existence doing odd jobs in and around Salher. Most of these families live below the poverty line.
The gram panchayat office in Salher had the names of 89 people below the poverty line, who were due for free pucca housing under the Gharkul Yojana.
The gram panchayat had carried out a survey of all the people in the village below the poverty line, with the help of a private agency. Some villagers alleged that the survey was not accurate.
"The survey has been conducted selectively. I have a list of 93 names that did not appear in the survey,'' said Abhiman Pawar, who has been fighting for the rights of the tribals since the last two years. "Additionally, I have another list which has the names of those who were included in the survey but had still not got their pucca homes because of their faith,'' alleged Pawar.
The villagers also alleged that migrants from villages in Gujarat had been getting the benefits of the Gharkul Yojana. Salher is about 10 km from the Gujarat border. Pawar has the list of Gujarati migrants.
"We are not giving houses to the migrants. Some families in our village marry their girls to Gujarati men, who then stay in our village. We will look into this matter,'' said block division officer, S Ahire.
"We are going to conduct a survey after the elections. The eight people in the other list will get their pucca houses within two months,'' assured A B Kedar of Zilla Grameen Vikas Yantrana.
toireporter@timesgroup.com