Bulldozing houses of the scheduled caste community in Raipura village of Sagar district, allegedly without serving notices, has sparked a massive political outrage with the Madhya Pradesh government in damage control mode.
Ten houses were demolished. Out of these, six were being built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Friday hit out at the ruling BJP, alleging that the atrocities against the Dalit community has reached its peak.
Mayawati's BSP and Arvind Kejriwal's AAP too targeted the state government and the local BJP MLA and Revenue Minister Govind Singh Rajput in the matter.
The Minister said that the government has suspended the ranger who ordered the demolition and the government will get the houses reconstructed.
Former Chief Minister and Congress MP Digvijaya Singh reached the spot and protested along with the affected Ahirwar families in Raipura village.
"I came to know that the houses of Dalits and others were demolished with the help of bulldozers under police protection in Rapura village around 10.30 PM on Wednesday," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters.
Digvijaya Singh stages sit-in against demolition of Dalits' houses
The Minister accused the Congress leader of indulging in caste politics.
"Digvijaya Singh should stop playing caste politics in Surkhi assembly constituency, as there is no discrimination here on caste lines. I talked to the district collector on Thursday morning only over razing of houses without serving notices. The concerned forest ranger has been suspended. The state's CM has assured that whatever is needed by the families, be it houses or plots, will be provided to the affected families," said the Minister.
Children were seen playing in the debris which was their home till a day before.
"Six houses of PM Awas were razed. No notice was served; it's our ancestral property," said a member of an affected family.
"We said wait for 10 minutes, we will remove the goods, but they pulled us out and bulldozed our homes," said another.
According to the Forest Department, only those who were illegally occupying the government forest land were evicted.
"Yesterday the encroachments on forest land were removed. They were in the process of removal for the last one year. A case was registered against them under section 80 of Forest Act and a notice was issued against them. Notice was given many times," said Mahendra Pratap Singh, Divisional Forest Officer, Sagar.
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