Govt 'snatching' rights of tribals by weakening Forest Rights Act, alleges Rahul

New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the government of "snatching" the rights of tribals by weakening the Forest Rights Act and asserted that his party will protect these rights at all costs.

"'Erase the paper, steal the rights' - The BJP has made this a new weapon for the oppression of Bahujans. Somewhere they remove the names of Dalits and backward classes from the voter list, and somewhere they make the forest rights titles of tribals 'disappear'," Gandhi said in a post on X.

Citing media reports, he said in Bastar, 2,788 and in Rajnandgaon, more than half – in Chhattisgarh, the records of thousands of forest rights titles have been suddenly made to vanish.

"The Congress enacted the Forest Rights Act to protect the water, forest, and land of tribals - the BJP is weakening it and snatching their primary rights.

"We will not let this happen - tribals are the first owners of this country, and we will protect their rights at all costs," the Congress leader said in his post in Hindi.

He cited media reports that claimed that thousands of forest rights titles have gone missing in Chhattisgarh records, with as many as 2788 individual forest rights titles missing in Bastar district alone. PTI SKC ZMN