Campaign Criticises Effort By Central Government to Subvert Forest
Rights Act Implementation
[A copy of the letter referred to in this statement is pasted below the
statement].
The Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a platform of tribal and forest
dwellers' mass organisations from eleven States, condemns the ongoing
effort by the Central Government to effectively subvert the
implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. This intention was
apparent even at the time of notification of the Rules to the Act,
which undermined key provisions of the law regarding decision-making
bodies, community conservation and procedures for wildlife
conservation, while exacerbating the Act's flaws and ambiguities. It
has now become even clearer with the issuance of a letter by the
Ministry of Panchayati Raj at the Central government, dated 15.02.2008,
asking State governments to convene gram sabhas in all the villages
across the country for the Act on the 28th of February. This is clearly
impossible. Wherever it does take place, it will lead to both misuse
and confusion because:
* In the absence of either alternative instructions or clarity in the
Rules regarding convening hamlet level gram sabhas, the gram sabhas
that will be convened will be those of the gram panchayats – which
generally cover large areas and multiple villages. Such gram sabhas
would have several thousand members. The Campaign and political leaders
across parties have repeatedly pointed out that this will render any
meaningful and just decision-making impossible. Moreover, in Scheduled
Areas, it is illegal and unconstitutional, as it is in direct violation
both of the provisions of the Act and of the Panchayats (Extension to
Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996.
* Convening gram sabhas for this purpose in a space of 13 days is
impossible (indeed, some States reportedly received the letter only on
the 20th). This will lead to low attendance or engineered attendance,
followed by efforts to fudge the quorum to meet the 66% requirement in
the Rules. The result will be unrepresentative Forest Rights Committees
(the bodies charged with verifying claims, as per the Rules) and
manipulation of the process.
* The Central government has made no effort whatsoever to publicise the
provisions of the Act, and most State governments have also not done
so. In this context it is laughable that the letter in question says
that "Well before this [i.e. before February 28th], the gram panchayats
and the members of the divisional and district level committees must
understand the entire process and specifically their assigned roles and
responsibilities." This is expected to happen within a space of a few
days.
Instead of arbitrarily pressurising State governments to meet
impossible and ludicrous deadlines, the role of the Central government
should be to provide a reasonable timeline, including time for
workshops, training, and publicity for forest dwellers, people's
organisations and officials. Gram sabhas should be organised only after
that, with the gram sabha timings decided at the State level in
accordance with local conditions. Moreover, time for constituting
hamlet level gram sabhas should also be provided.
This letter is clearly meant to be an eyewash – a cover up for the two
years during which the Central government delayed, sabotaged and
undermined this historic legislation. Instead of compounding its
criminal actions by pretending to be concerned about implementation
now, the Centre should follow the spirit and letter of this law.
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
9810819301, forestcampaign@gmail.com,
http://forestrightsact.awardspace.com
Text of the letter dated Feb 15, 2008, sent by the Minister of
Panchayati Raj (Mani Shankar Aiyar) to the Chief Ministers of all
states regarding implementation of the FRA:
"May I invite your attention to the letter to you from the Hon'ble
Prime Minister dated 8 Jan, 2008 highlighting the need for
expeditiously implementing the Scheduled Tribes & other Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act and Rules.
Under the Rules, the State Govt is required to constitute State level
Monitoring Committees and Committees at District and Sub Divisional
Levels. Clause 6(1) of the Act authorises the Gram Sabhas to initiate
the process for determining the nature and extent of
individual/Community Forest Rights. In this regard, Gram Panchayats
have to convene the meeting of Gram Sabhas wherein the members of the
Forest Rights Committee (FRC) should be elected. The FRC is required to
collect claim filed in the prescribed formats and given acknowledgement
to the claimants, keep proper records of the claimants, verify the
claims and present their findings to the Gram Sabhas. The Gram Sabhas
are required to pass their resolutions on each individual claim and
submit the same to the Sub Divisional Level Committee for further
processing. Sub Divisional Level Committees have to ensure that the
Gram Sabhas are made aware of their roles and responsibilities, the
proforma for filing claims are easily available to the claimants, the
gram sabha meetings are conducted in free, open and fair manner with
requisite quorum etc. District Level Committees are to finally consider
the claims for approval, ensure publication of the approved claims in
the record of rights and make copies available to claimants.
As can be seen from the above, time bound action is called for at all
levels. To properly perform their responsibilities within the time
frame provided by the Rules, the FRCs and Gram Sabhas require extensive
support in terms of familiarizing them with the provisions dealing with
the claims, resolving conflicts, documentation etc. I would suggest you
to kindly address these issues on priority.
As proposed by the Hon'ble Prime Minister, I suggest that all States
across the country may kindly organize Gram Sabhas on the 28th
February, 2008. The provisions of the Act and Rules and the roles and
responsibilities of Gram Sabhas and FRCs should be explained in these
meetings. Well before this, the Gram Panchayats and the members of
Divisional and District level Committees must understand the entire
process and specifically their assigned roles and responsibilities.
Training for this purpose must be organised for the Sub-Divisional
Committee members and Pradhans and other PRI representatives much
before the date of the proposed meeting of Gram Sabhas.
Please take action as suggested above and complete arrangements for
holding the Gram Sabhas on 28th February so that the process of
Recognizing Forest Rights of Tribals and other Forest Dwellers are
launched expeditiously.
Regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
(Mani Shankar Aiyar)