Former BJP tribal leader to teach a lesson to the saffron party in polls

An orthopaedic surgeon by profession,Dr Damor was a member of the National Scheduled Tribe Commission during the Vajpayee-led NDA regime. He deserted the ruling BJP over a year ago,and has now formally joined the Congress to take on the saffron party in the Lok Sabha elections,particularly in the tribal-dominated constituencies.

“At present,I am busy chalking out a detailed strategy,focusing on burning socio-economic issues confronting the tribal community in the entire eastern belt of Gujarat. I have decided to extensively tour this belt,along with a team of committed supporters,to canvass votes for Congress candidates,” Damor told Newsline on Saturday.

Among other issues concerning the tribal community,the BJP government’s apathy towards providing land titles to tribal farmers may prove a potent weapon for the opposition Congress to wield against the ruling party at the polls.

Damor said: “Despite the clear-cut guidelines given under the Centre’s new Tribal Forest Act,the Modi government has done little when it comes to handing out land titles to tribals who have been cultivating the forest land for years.”

He has also opposed the government’s decision to appoint the state Forest Department as a nodal agency to implement the Tribal Act,instead of entrusting this task to the Tribal Department.

A senior official in the state Forest Department said that of the total one lakh applications received from tribal beneficiaries seeking land titles,only 2,000 have been cleared till date. “We have already processed about 20,000 of the total applications,but could provide land title documents to only 2,000 tribals,” the official said.

Damor said the Rs 15,000 crore Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana,a tribal welfare scheme announced by the government,is a mere eyewash. “The project is nothing but an amalgamation of the various state as well as Centre-sponsored schemes meant for tribal welfare. This is a blatant attempt by Chief Minister Narendra Modi to hoodwink the gullible tribal community,” he said.

He added that Modi’s Vanbandhu Kalyan project had miserably failed to woo the tribals in the 2007 Assembly elections in Gujarat where the Congress won 14 of the total 26 seats reserved for the tribal candidates despite the prevailing “Modi wave”.

Another key issue Damor has decided to highlight during the poll campaign is the shoddy implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Gujarat.

“Thousands of poor tribal families across Gujarat would have benefited from the Centre-sponsored NREGS,but for poor implementation of the scheme. If a backward district like Dungarpur in neighbouring Rajasthan can win the Union Rural Development Ministry’s award for the best implementation of the scheme,why not a progressive state like Gujarat,” Damor said.

Of the total 24 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat,Dahod,Chhota Udepur,Valsad and Bardoli are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections,the BJP won only Dahod and that too with a slender margin of 361 votes.

“This time,the Congress will not only wrest the Dahod seat from the BJP,but also retain the other three,” said Damor,whose younger sister,Dr Prabha Tavadia is the Congress nominee for Dahod.