PS Krishnan, IAS (retd), former secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Welfare, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to BJP chief Amit Shah and his Congress counterpart Rahul Gandhi asking their respective party chief ministers to file review petitions against the Supreme Court’s order of February 13, 2019, has said, it is good that an all-party consensus on STs' forest rights, but this is not enough.
The apex court order had allegedly endangered the rights of over a million forest dwellers over forest land. According to Krishnan, such review petitions "virtually never lead to positive results", insisting, "What is required is decisive action, which will at one stroke resolve the problem, and this has to be through the legislative route and, initially, at this pre-election stage though the Ordinance route."
Asking him to "consider issue of such an Ordinance, before the Election Code of Conduct comes into force", Krishnan says, "The Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA), which has been working since decades among STs, has also, in its resolution adopted in its Kendriya Karyakari Mandal meeting at Satna on February 24, 2019 demanded that the Central Government should intervene in this matter through an Ordinance."
Recalling the decision of tribal organizations to call a Bharat Bandh on March 5, 2019, Krishnan said, "It would be called off only if the Centre brings an Ordinance before March 5, 2019. It is in the interest of the Government and in the interest of building up confidence in the system of democratic governance that the Ordinance is issued without the Bandh being necessary and before the Bandh takes place." He adds, "Consequence of such Bandhs will not be pleasant."
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