Lok Sabha takes up Tribal Rights Bill

New Delhi, Dec 15: The Lok Sabha today took up for consideration a bill seeking to recognise the rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing there for generations and vest in them such rights.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2006, as reported by a Joint Committee of Parliament which went into the details of the bill, was moved by Tribal Affairs Minister P R Kyndiah.

The bill seeks to lay down a procedure for recognition and vesting of forest rights in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes.

The bill reinforces and utilises the rich conservation ethos that tribal communities have traditionally shown and cautions against any form of unsustainable or destructive practices.

It lays down a simple procedure for recognition and vesting of forest rights in the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes so that rights, which stand vested in forest dwelling tribal communities, become legally enforceable through corrective measures in the formal recording system of the executive machinery.

The bill provides for adequate safeguards to avoid any further encroachment of forests and seeks to involve the democratic institutions at the grassroots level in the process of recognition and vesting of forest rights.

The legislation addresses the long standing and genuinely felt need of granting a secure and inalienable right to those communities whose right to life depends on right to forests and thereby strengthening the entire conservation regime by giving a permanent stake to the STs dwelling in the forests for generations in symbiotic relationship with the entire ecosystem.

Initiating the debate on the bill, BJP member and former tribal affairs minister Jual Oram welcomed the bill and said the forests had the best chance to survive if communities participated in its conservation and re-generation measures.

Congress member Madhusoodhan Mistry said insecurity of tenure and fear of eviction from these lands where they had lived and thrived for generations were perhaps the biggest reasons why tribal communities felt emotionally as well as physically alienated from forests and forest lands.

Mr Ramji Lal Suman (SP) pleaded for making the taluka committee more broadbased by including in it people's representatives. He said the Bill would help secure to the tribals their rights which had been denied to them for ages. Mr Ram Kripal Yadav (RJD) described the Bill as historic. He said the tribals, constituting 9 per cent of India's population, had been denied rights for the forests since long. The Bill would help them earn their livelihood and stand on their own feet. He wanted that once a law was enacted, it should be sincerely implemented.

Mr A K Krishnaswamy (DMK) said that all the state governments should be directed to give pattas of vacant land to the tribals. He supported the Bill saying that the Government was working for the downtrodden and for social justice.

Mr Bhuvneshwar Prasad (CPI) urged the Government to withdraw lakhs of cases of encroachment pending against tribals in various courts or else, the Bill would serve no purpose. He pointed out that the tribals were forced to languish in jails by launching false cases against them. He said the bigwigs had usurped the forest land, uprooting the tribals, which should be returned to them by bringing another Bill.

Mr Mahavir Bhagora (BJP) supported the Bill, saying it would give relief to the tribals. They had been struggling for their rights for the last 59 years after Independence and eventually, their voice had been heard. He wanted that a portion of the forests should be given to tribals and they be encouraged by the Government to plant trees.

Mr Sandeep Dixit (Congress) described the Bill as revolutionary and said hitherto only lip sympathy had been expressed for the tribal rights. It was for the first time that an attempt had been made to secure to the tribals their rights.

Participating in the discussion, Khiren Rijiju (BJP), while supporting the bill, said that for the first time, 59 years after independence, such a bill had benn introduced for the protection of rights of the tribals and forest dwellers. He said a time has come that the Government should give a definition to reserved forests. The concept of reserved forests was initiated and introduced by the Britishers and there was no consent of the people in that.
The bill tried to be democratic by giving due weightage to the Gram Panchayat but at the same time, it mentioned that the decisions of the District Committee were final and binding and in that case, the Chairman of the District Committee should be an elected peoples representative and not an official who is not concerned of the people around.

Mohammad Tahir Khan (BSP) said it could be a fact that some of the Bangladeshis were illegally entering Asom but that did not mean that all Muslims were illegal migrants. The Government before taking action on their deportation should verify their antecedents. In the name of Bangladeshis, no genuine Muslims of the country should be forcefully deported, he said.

Prabodh Panda (CPI) said that the clause of three generation settlement for having the land rights should be replaced with the previous norm of twelve years of dwelling.

Dr Rameshwar Oraon (Congress), while supporting the bill, said that for the first time, an effort was being made to settle the tribals with land rights.

He also raised objection to Indian Army's decision to have a firing range at Gumla, uprooting some two hundred tribal villages.

He said they were villages of those people who had been termed as primitive tribals and requested the Government to have a review of its decision on the proposed firing site.

UNI