Ex-secretary to GoI objects to displacement of Chenchus for G-20 meet in Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM: Former Secretary to Government of India EAS Sarma in a letter to Chief Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh Dr K S Jawahar Reddy has said that Visakhapatnam’s poor families are often evicted mercilessly whenever VIPs visit the city, violating every norm of human rights protection.

“It has become an ugly feature of Visakhapatnam that, whenever VIPs visit the city, the poor families squatting on either side of the VIP routes are evicted mercilessly, in a blatant violation of the law of the land.

“I have written time and again to the State authorities to desist from this inhuman response to VIP visits but they seem to be totally insensitive and callous,” lamented Sarma in the letter addressed on Monday.

This time, it is the visit of the delegates to the G-20 meetings which is being held at Vizag. The Chenchu tribals from ASR Nagar, who were earlier displaced by the authorities on an assurance that they would be given regular shelters, were once again threatened with one more displacement.

“May I remind the authorities that such abrupt eviction of the Chenchus, who are recognized under the Constitution as members of the Scheduled Tribes and are also recognized as ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group’ (PVTG) by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, would attract the penal provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 2015, apart from the provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993.

India was a signatory to the UN Charter on Human Rights, said Sarma in his letter.

The former bureaucrat appealed to the government to desist from going ahead with the proposed displacement of the tribal settlement at ASR Nagar. He also said that the similar displacement of hawkers, vendors and small shop owners who were eligible for protection under the relevant Central legislations should also be halted.

The treatment being meted out to the indigenous communities in the country should be a matter of concern to the Union Ministry of External Affairs, said Sarma.