Kukshi/Dhar (Madhya Pradesh): After the enactment of the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, the first PESA awareness conference on the act was held in Kukshi's Krishi Upaj Mandi in the presence of about 20,000 tribal people and was addressed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Chouhan spent more than an hour and directly interacted with village sarpanchs and tribals from the adjoining villages in the district.
In the beginning, the CM was welcomed by Dhar MP Chhattar Singh Darbar, Rajya Sabha MP Sumer Singh Solanki, Khargone MP Gajendra Singh Patel, state BJP minister Jaideep Patel, district president Rajeev Yadav, Municipal Council president Muqam Singh Kirade, former minister Ranjana Baghel, Virendra Singh Baghel and district panchayat members Chanchal Patidar, Ramesh Dhadiwal.
The chief minister first asked the sarpanchs to hold a Khatla meeting regarding the PESA law and asked them to take this law to every village and tell its benefits to the people.
On this occasion, BJP state president VD Sharma said that after 75 years of independence, the BJP government of the state has given the biggest rights to the tribal brothers residing in 79 tribal blocks of the state.
Sharma said that November 15 was a historic day in the state as on this Janjatiya Gourav Diwas PESA law was implemented in the state.
Gram Sabha in progress | FPNS
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh said that the PESA Act has now been implemented in the state and today I’m here not to deliver a speech but to explain the PESA Act as it is in the interest of the tribal society and not against other societies.
Chief Minister said that land, forest and water is everyone's right. Both tribals and non-tribals will be a part of the Gram Sabha.
CM said that the rights of the land in the villages will be with the Gram Sabha. All land acquisitions will mandatorily require permission from the Gram Sabha. Now the patwaris will have to present a copy of maps in the gram sabha once a year and inform about various land owners thus curbing arbitrariness.
Describing the rights of Gram Sabha in PESA, the chief minister said that if any mineral, sand or ballast is to be taken, it will have to be taken from the Gram Sabha after a survey. Gram Sabha will take care of the resources. The government will not interfere in this. This year's decisions will have to be taken by December 15. The money coming in the village panchayats will not be planned in Bhopal but on the chaupals, he said.
