Karnataka - Madikeri   

Gram sabhas to form forest rights panels held in haphazard manner

Madikeri: The Union Government, through the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, has directed the States and Union territories to convene gram sabha meetings to form forest rights committees (FRCs) with a view to expediting the implementation of the “Scheduled Caste and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers’ (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that such meetings should be held across the country on February 28. Such meetings were held in Kodagu last month, but in a haphazard way.

Though the Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department of the State had made the letter on February 21, it reached the zilla panchayat office here on February 26, a day before gram sabha meetings were to be convened.

The zilla panchayat office conveyed the matter to all gram panchayats in Kodagu through the executive officers of the three taluk panchayats to organise such meetings.

“We will not accept the members chosen to the forest rights committees in Kodagu,” J.P. Raju, president of the Budakattu Krishikara Sangha (BKS), a tribal people’s organisation, told The Hindu on Sunday.

He said meetings to select such committees should be held in the tribal colonies. Tribal people aged above 18 should be informed about this and made to understand what was in store for them in the Act. Many tribal people had gone out of their colonies for coffee-picking.

The tribal people from Kodagu were planning to meet the Governor soon. In many panchayats, existing village forest committees were converted into first rights committees, he alleged.

Executive Officer of the Madikeri Taluk Panchayat Motappa said forest rights committees had been constituted in all the 22 gram panchayats limits in the taluk. The existing village forest committees remained as they were, he added.

G.N. Nagaraj, Executive Officer of the Somwarpet Taluk Panchayat said that formalities with regard to formation of such committees in all the 40 gram panchayats limits had been over.

Executive Officer of Virajpet Taluk Panchayat K.V. Nagaraju said gram sabhas had been held only in 11 of the 36 gram panchayats. Because, there is no forest cover in the rest of the panchayat limits. This is a misunderstanding of the rules under the Act and powers that a forst rights committee has. He, however, has admitted to his mistake.

A forest rights committee will have a minimum of 10 members and a maximum of 15 of which 1/3 will be members from the Scheduled Castes living in the forest areas. The committee will determine the nature and extent of forest rights after receiving the claims for forestland, hear claims, maintain a register, pass resolutions on forest rights and forward its recommendation to the sub-divisional committee, which in turn passes it to the district-level committee.

Deputy Secretary of the zilla panchayat Zulfiqarulla admits that time was too short to understand the rules of the Act. Social Welfare officer Rajesh G. Gowda said that rules were in English and had to be sent to the translation department for interpretation.

President of the Standing Committee on Social Justice S.N. Raja Rao is not happy with the formation of committees. There was a move to identify “critical wildlife habitat” in the forest areas even before implementing the Act, he alleged. “The Act should be implemented first,” he said.

President of the Kodagu unit of DYFI B.S. Ramanath too is critical of the procedure to form forest rights committees. New committees should be constituted and steps taken to implement the Act, he said.

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