Congress vice-president unhappy with Himachal chief minister over "refusal" to implement Forest Rights Act

Rahul Gandhi with Virbhadra Singh

By A Representative
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is learnt to be unhappy with the party’s Himachal Pradesh (HP) government, led by chief minister Virbhadra Singh, for its “failure” to implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, in the state, even as declaring occupiers on forest land as encroachers.
Keenly aware of how it would erode Congress base in a state still under Congress rule, Gandhi told a delegation consisting of several civil rights organizations, which met him, that it is “totally wrong” on the part of the HP government to declare all forest rights claims in the state were settled even before the FRA, 2006 came into existence.
Asking senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister, to immediately look into the matter, Gandhi was quoted as saying that the Congress is “fully committed” to implementing FRA, 2006, and there “there cannot be any laxity” about it.
The delegation – which consisted, among others, of Guman Singh of Him Niti Abhiyan; Jiya Lal of the Him Lok Jagriti Manch; Devi Gyan of the Lippa Sangarsh Samiti,; R Sreedhar of Environics Trust; and Ashok Shrimali of Mines, Minerals and People, Ahmedabad – told Gandhi that the HP government is “misleading” even the High Court about the process of implementing the FRA.
In its representation, the delegation said, in HP, out of total geographical area of 55,673 sq km, 66.52% comprises of forest land – 37,033 sq km”, adding, while most of the forest land is “unculturable and snow bound”, 13,907 sq km, roughly one fourth of the total geographical area “is culturable and is under traditional access of local communities.”
“Approximately 95% of the state population lives in villages are dependent on these forests for various livelihood needs”, the representation said, adding, it is this section of society falls in the FRA, 2006.
It adds, these people come other the category of other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD) and schedule tribes forest dwellers (STFD) “living in the Schedule 5 areas of Lahaul Spiti, Kinnaur and Pangi-Bharmour and are eligible for the recognition of community forest resource rights and Individual forest land rights.”
Pointing towards how the HP government “from very beginning has tried to evade implementation of the FRA, 2006”, the representation said, in fact, it has gone so far as to claim that the “rights have been settled by the British through the imperial settlement process and hence recognition under FRA is not necessary.”
It further said, it was only under the constant pressure of the local communities and Ministry of Tribal Affairs that the “state government started the process in 2008 in tribal region and in 2012-13 in the non-tribal regions.”
Yet, no claims of forest rights under FRA have not been verified and recognized, said the representation, adding, “All filed claims are pending with sub-divisional level committees and district level committees till date”, with some of them having been “sent back to forest rights committees by raising objections without following the procedures laid down under FRA rules, 2012.”
Meanwhile, the representation said, the forest department, on the basis of a High Court order, “pressurized dwellers not to file claims”, going so far as to file “FIRs under HP Public Premises & Land (Eviction & Rent Recovery) Act, 1971” calling occupiers of the forest land as “encroachers.”
“The forest dwellers are helpless”, the representation said, asked Gandhi to personally impress upon the state government to “implement FRA in letter and spirit and build a fearless atmosphere so that tribals and other forest dwellers are encouraged to file claims under the Act.
“Gandhi directed Jairam Ramesh to ensure that the state government clarifies the situation in the High Court and appeals in the court to implement FRA and not victimize forest dwellers”, Guman Singh ,who led the delegation to meet Gandhi, told me.
“Congress will take all measures for strengthening gram sabhas and ensure that governments don't side step the processes mandated under the Indian legal system and FRA”, Gandhi added.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog