The Hindu : National : Land rights of tribals will be protected: Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 11, 2005

National

National

Land rights of tribals will be protected: Minister

Special Correspondent

States told to adopt transparent system for verification

NEW DELHI: Union Environment and Forests Minister A. Raja on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that the Ministry had issued directions to all State and Union Territory Governments in December last not to resort to eviction of tribal people from forest land in the absence of verification and determination of their rights.

The information was provided by the Minister in the face of repeated demands from a cross-section of members that the rights of tribals to forest land should be respected during a calling attention motion on the situation arising out of non-implementation of instructions and guidelines by the State Governments issued by the Environment and Forests Department for regularising forest land being cultivated by farmers prior to 1980.

Detailed reply

In a detailed reply that traced the prolonged struggle of tribals to forest land from the time the Forest (Conservation) Act was enacted in 1980, the Minister sought to allay fears about the law being prohibitive. ``It is only a regulatory Act,'' he said. Also, according to him, the Ministry had been pursuing with the State and Union Territory Governments to look into the settlement of land rights of forest dwellers/tribals, including regularisation of pre-1980 encroachments on forest lands proactively and adopt a transparent system for verification and determination of their land rights.

Moved by Madhusudan Mistry of the Congress, the calling attention saw members from various political parties speak up for tribals with V. Kishore Chandra Deo (also of the Congress) arguing that forest land had been degraded not by tribals and forest dwellers but the timber mafia and other unscrupulous elements. Also, he was of the view that with a Ministry of Tribal Affairs in place, the issue of land settlement of tribals ought to be handed over to it since the Ministry of Environment and Forests was generally perceived to be a stumbling block.

Basudeb Acharia of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wanted to know from the Minister whether the Government would enact a legislation to protect the land rights of tribals so that they are not evicted. Giridhar Gamang (Congress) asked whether it would address the unrest among tribals over the non-recognition of their rights.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National