MP High Court to hear Pardhis case

Bhopal, Apr 08: Madhya Pradesh High Court has put of for Thursday the hearing on petition demanding security to Pardhis so that they were able to exercise their right to franchise during the by-polls being conducted for Betul Parliamentary seat on April 12.

The petitioner, Anurag Modi of Samajwadi Jan Parishad, had claimed that Pardhis - a de-notified nomadic tribe of Madhya Pradesh - are being kept at camps by Betul district administration on the ground that they may face violence if they go back to their respective villages and filed a petition on Monday demanding protection to victims when they go to cast their votes during the by-polls. About 300 people of the community including men, women and children were lodged in two camps run by the administration after their houses in Multai Tehsil of Betul district were set afire by the local villagers on September 11, 2007.

The villagers had set their houses on fire alleging that one of the Pardhi community members had raped and killed a village woman. Later, National Commission for Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes, New Delhi, inquired into the matter and said that the incident occurred in the presence of several administrative and police officials and politicians of the area.

“More than six months have passed since the people belonging to Pardhi community have been living in the camps and no efforts have been done by the administration to rehabilitate them at their place of living", said the petitioner Anurag Modi who had filed the petition in the matter demanding police escort to all the 150 Pardhi voters living in camps ever since their houses were set ablaze. The petitioner also demanded security on ground that the candidates including Sukhdev Panse of Congress, Sunilam of SP and Hemant Khandelwal of BJP had threatened the Pardhis of dire consequences if they returned to their village.