Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday staged a sit-in to protest the demolition of the houses of some tribal families at Rapura village in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. A forest ranger was subsequently suspended by the authorities.
“I came to know that the houses of tribals 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 here.
Under which law these houses, built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, were demolished, he asked. District collector Dipak Arya and Superintendent of Police Abhishek Tiwari reached the protest site in a bid to placate Singh. After getting a written assurance from them, Singh ended his sit-in, his associates said.
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But Madhya Pradesh minister and the BJP's Surkhi MLA Govind Singh Rajput accused Singh of spreading misinformation, and said forest officials were removing encroachment. He, however, also said that the "guilty" forest ranger responsible for the act has been suspended.
"Upon getting the information, I immediately contacted the collector and divisional forest officer and asked them to lease out land to the displaced people under the Chief Minister's Housing Scheme and rehabilitate them," Rajput said in a press release.
Area DFO Mahendra Pratap Singh said that forest land was freed of illegal encroachment in a joint operation carried out by his department, revenue and police.
