NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing concern at the failure of the Government to bring the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Tribes) Bill 2005 in the just-concluded session of Parliament.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) had submitted its unanimous recommendations over three months ago and it had been decided in the United Progressive Alliance-Left Coordination Committee meeting of July 22 that the Government would hold talks on the Bill with the Left parties. "In the absence of any such discussions, I would like to reiterate the understanding of the CPI (M) on the four JPC recommendations on which the Government has expressed its reservations in the July meeting," she said in her letter.

"The Government has expressed reservations over extension of the cut-off year from 1980 to 2005, the inclusion of non-tribal traditional forest dwellers in the ambit of the Bill, removal of the ceiling of 2.5 hectares and extension of rights of gram sabhas in deciding the beneficiaries. You will kindly appreciate that these taken together are crucial to the JPC recommendations without which the Bill will not undo but add to the injustices suffered by tribal communities. In fact these recommendations are in tune with the assurance given in the UPA Government's Common Minimum Programme," she added.

Drawing the Prime Minister's attention to the premises of the JPC recommendations, she requested Dr. Singh to refer to the Government's and specifically the Ministry of Environment and Forests guidelines and circulars which reflect positions already accepted and implemented by the Government and which are similar to the JPC's recommendations.

There is a misinformed view that the recommendations are against conservation and protection of India's wild life. A careful study makes it clear that the JPC sets out a regime which, while protecting the rights of tribals and traditional forest dwellers, differentiates between the two, keeping the focus on tribal rights.

It holds no brief for encroachers who have exploited the wealth of the forests for commercial gain, Ms. Karat said.

Referring to various notifications by the Union Environment and Forests Ministry and the Supreme Court rulings, she said the rights of non-tribal traditional forest dwellers had already been recognised by the Government, at least until 1993. As much as 3.74 lakh hectares of land has already been regularised for pre-1980 forest dwellers, tribal and non-tribal, and the land so regularised has no ceiling but was done on an "as is where is" basis.

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