People's Democracy

Centre not Serious about FRA: CPI(M) Leader

Rahul Sinha

RECOGNISING the rights of the tribal people to the forest lands will curb the plunder of the tribal lands by big businesses in the name of mining and other development projects. This is the reason why the centre is reluctant to implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and is sabotaging its implementation in the interest of indigenous and foreign corporate houses.

This was what Brinda Karat, a member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, said while addressing a press conference at Agartala, the capital of Tripura, on Sunday, August 11. The press conference was convened by the central committee of Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM), whose two-day meeting concluded at Agartala on the day. AARM president Bajuban Reang, joint convener M Baburao and its central committee members P Madhu and Jitendra Choudhury also spoke to the press.

Addressing the press conference, Brinda Karat said according to the latest figures around 32 lakh applications for pattas of forest land were submitted to different state governments. But almost 50 per cent of these, i.e. around 15.8 lakh applications, have been rejected. Unlike in Tripura where no application has been rejected and around 1.17 lakh families have been given pattas, the tribal people are being denied the land pattas in most of the states. Also, there are a number of scheduled caste (SC) and other sections of people who have been residing in the forest areas since before independence. But they do not have any proof of their residence as the British did not give any pattas either to the tribals or to the SCs. The present law stipulates a minimum 75 years of residence in a forest area, with proof thereof, for a non-tribal family to get a patta. Naturally, such families are not getting any pattas. We have been demanding that the law must be suitably amended so that all the tribal people and also the SCs and other sections of people residing in the forest areas could have a legal right of residence. But the centre is reluctant to do so and is in fact sabotaging the proper implementation of the law itself, even in its present form, because it is more interested in helping the corporate houses in their plunder of our rich mineral and natural resources which are there in the tribal areas.

Brinda Karat said the AARM demands that the centre should pass a law that makes it mandatory for the central and state governments to implement the tribal sub-plan properly and that money must be allocated and spent according to the percentage of the tribal population.

She said the recent NSSO figures show that as much as 47 per cent of the tribal population has turned into wage labourers from cultivators. The percentage of cultivators among the tribals has gone down to as low as 37 per cent. Landlessness is increasing among the tribal people, making them more impoverished. There is a huge backlog as vacant posts reserved for the SC and ST groups are not being filled up. With privatisation of the central public sector undertakings, the very concept of reservation is being done away with. All this needs to be reversed if the status of the tribal people is to be raised.

Replying to a question on the demands of new states for tribal people in Assam and Bengal after the decision to create a separate state of Telangana, Brinda Karat said the issue was discussed in the meeting of the AARM. There are tribal people both in Telangana and Andhra regions and we don’t think a mere division of the state would improve the condition of the tribal people in either part of the state of Andhra Pradesh. That holds good for the other states too. What is needed for the development of the tribal people is proper implementation and guarantee of safety of the rights as given in the 5th and 6th schedule of the constitution and strengthening the bodies like the Autonomous Development Council (ADC) through devolution of more financial and other powers to it. Tripura is a shining example in this regard. This is precisely what the successive governments in Assam have not done and have thus led to the present pathetic situation.

To another question about the situation in Kerala as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was preparing for an indefinite picketing of the state secretariat there from August 12, Monday, and the state government was preparing to face the situation with the might of the central and state armed forces, Brinda Karat termed the situation as unprecedented. She said earlier too allegations of corruption were raised and in all the cases the chief minister had resigned and enquiries had been initiated. But here is a chief minister who has allegedly patronised the scamsters and is now threatening to use brute force against a peaceful mass movement instead of stepping down, despite huge public sentiment against him. The centre has to clarify whether it is its duty to send its forces to suppress a peaceful mass movement. The CPI(M) leader expressed the hope that the allies of the Congress in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) would send some message to the Congress and its central leadership who are backing this chief minister against any possible use of force, as that would be a use of force not against any particular political party or front but against the very people of Kerala. The chief minister must step down immediately and a judicial enquiry must be started in the solar panel scam, Brinda Karat demanded.

In his opening remarks, Bajuban Reang said it was for the first time that the AARM had held its CC meeting in Agartala. The meeting heard and discussed the report of activities of the organisation since its last meeting in Vishakhapattanam. Reang said though the centre announced a special programme for the development of the 75 primitive groups of tribal masses living in 16 states and a union territory in 1975, nothing much has been done in reality for their preservation and development. The name of the programme has changed from PGP to PTG, but the much needed financial help and other assistance to the states has remained skeletal. Rather the census records of 1991 and 2001 show that at least four of these tribes are missing from the census data. The AARM has urged the centre that the said programme should be taken more seriously.

Detailing on the discussions by the central committee members, M Baburao said the two main issues confronting the tribal people are the large scale displacement due to acquisition of lands for mining, development and other mega projects, and the non-implementation of the FRA. He demanded that the rights of the tribal people to the lands they have been residing upon traditionally must be protected and, wherever acquisition becomes unavoidable, proper relief and rehabilitation packages should be provided. The FRA should be properly implemented. Forest departments of different states should go by the legislation and withdraw the court cases against the innocent tribal people. In many of the states except Tripura, no pattas have been given to the tribal masses. He demanded that the Van Sanrakshan Samiti lands must be distributed to the tribal people.

P Madhu told the press about the pitiable condition of the tribal people across the country. He said the central government and most of the state governments are adopting a step-motherly attitude towards the tribal people. The allocation for health and education of the tribal masses is shrinking. Students are being deprived of scholarships. There is urgent need for setting up health camps in different parts of Andhra Pradesh as malaria and other diseases might cause havoc in the tribal areas. All these issues are of concern and shall be taken up for formulating future programmes of agitation in the next conference of the AARM, scheduled to take place in the next January in Odisha.

Jitendra Choudhury said because of the positive attitude of the Left Front government the status of the tribal population in Tripura is far better than in other states. But the issues of injustice against the tribal people that have come to the fore in the meeting were an eye opener for us. We have to take lessons from these experiences, make both tribal and non-tribal masses aware of it and unite them so that these things can be prevented.