Tribals now pray to see police vacate Dangs

SURAT, March 16: The Dang tribals, who looked up to the State Reserve Police SRP for peacekeeping, have turned against them. It is thre...

SURAT, March 16: The Dang tribals, who looked up to the State Reserve Police SRP for peacekeeping, have turned against them. It is three months since SRP jawans and officers were sent on guard duty to this forested district; the prolonged stay has started taking its toll on them, as also on the villagers, creating a new kind of social tension.

Immediately on taking position, the SRP men had started sleeping inside the damaged shrines 8212; the very ones that had become a cause of conflict. The influx of reporters and visitors forced them out into the open, though. They then started living in tents.

But the prolonged stay, in conditions far from comfortable, in a district that boasts of few amenities even in Ahwa, the headquarters, has created tension between jawans and locals.

Most of the incidents have been minor. But some villagers allege that harassment by the jawans is on the rise. They say the SRP men ask indigent villagers for milk, food, and liquor, and eye their women.

Some Hindu organisations accuse them of crossing all limits of decency. Vishwa Hindu Parishad VHP Dangs unit chief Pradip Patil said that at Nadagdhadi village, a few SRP men chased a woman last fortnight. She managed to escape, and her husband filed a police complaint.

In Galkund village, one round was fired in the air when a group of drunken villagers assaulted a police party trying to recover Indian made foreign liquor on the occasion of Holi. Last week, an SRP jawan and a village functionary from Subir accused each other of assaulting the other.

Bharatiya Janata Party BJP Dangs unit general-secretary Dashrath Pawar said, 8220;We have told Hindu villagers that the SRP is there to protect only Christians. Villagers have been asked not to entertain any requests from them.8221; says Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary of Dangs unit Dashrath Pawar.

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He said that in fact the Christian tribals, whom the SRP was meant to protect, were being harassed more.

Both Pawar and Patil say the district could do without the SRP. 8220;They are bringing a bad name to the state government,8221; said Patil. But a senior police officer said, 8220;There have been a spate of complaints against the SRP men, but most are untrue. Some unscrupulous elements are making out a case against the force to ensure their withdrawal from the region, so that they can resort to violence again.8221;

Church of North India CNI superintendent T.V. Gaikwad does not rule out minor tussles between villagers and the SRP in few places. He also feels that the SRP is required only in a few sensitive places. 8220;It8217;s up to the administration to decide on continuing with them in the Dangs.8221;

In inaccessible areas, which hardly have any facility, SRP personnel do demand a few things from villagers, he points out. He, however, says barring a minor incident at Muthikasad village a couple of days ago, the area has been peaceful, and there was no tension between the SRP and villagers.