All Manipur Border Area Development Association (AMABADA) has strongly opposed the new guidelines issued by state government in connection with implementation of Border Area Development Programme (BADP).
A release issued on Wednesday stated that village authorities have been successfully implementing BADP in Manipur from past many years. However the recent decisions and guidelines issued by the state government relegated village authorities by excluding them in its implementation. Moreover, it also mentioned compulsory donation of land for implementation of the scheme. Exclusion of democratically elected grass root level institutions is a matter of serious concern as it will defeat the basic principles and purpose of the scheme, it added.
It continued that the programme has been implemented by the village authorities since many years till date and so far not a single case of land dispute has occurred in the place.
"The new guidelines are merely trying to grab tribal lands in broad daylight by exercising the legal authority. So donation of land to the government for implementation of BADP is not justifiable and unacceptable", it added.
Stating about the programme, it stated that BADP is 100 percent centrally sponsored programme taken up under the Ministry of Home Affairs for development of villages located within 10 Kms from the international border.
As mentioned in the guidelines, the ministry intends to make the schematic participatory and decentralised by involving local bodies including the Panchayati Raj Insurance, Autonomous Councils or other local bodies or local councils or village authorities, it added.
The release continued that AMBADA cannot accept the new guidelines and will not remain as a mere spectator in the relegation of democratically elected villages authorities and grabbing of tribal lands.
The association also appealed to all the tribal bodies of the state to extend their cooperation in their struggle to re-empower the village authorities and protection of tribal lands, the release said.
