ABSTRACT
In the months following the Bhopal Conference the Congress government under the leadership of Digvijay Singh moved forward rapidly to implement the policies adopted at the Conference. The Task Force set up by the government after the Conference for this purpose also played a significant role in this process. One of the major programmes taken up was distribution of land to dalits and tribals. The government had already embarked upon a programme of land reform in the state beginning in 1998, consisting of distribution of a portion of the government-owned charnoi (common grazing) land to dalits and tribals, restoration of tribal lands, removal of encroachments and ensuring actual possession of land to owners and providing them assistance to improve their land. This programme had been incorporated into the Bhopal Declaration, according it greater significance.While land had been distributed to disadvantaged sections by Congress governments in the 1980s under the leadership of Arjun Singh and Motilal Vora, the land reform programme of the 1990s was qualitatively different. More wide-ranging, it attempted to introduce seminal changes in the landholding system of the state and improve the livelihood of the dalits and tribals. Also, under a Joint Task Force in 2000, it was undertaken in partnership with the Ekta Parishad, an NGO working for distribution of land to dalits and tribals in the state.
