New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Thursday demanded that the government issue an ordinance to protect all tribals and traditional forest dwellers, following a Supreme Court order, which, the party claimed, would lead to eviction of millions of families belonging to such communities from forests in 16 states.
The Supreme Court had on February 13 asked 21 states to apprise it about the action taken by them over the issue of eviction of tribals and forest dwellers whose claim for the forest land have been rejected. A PIL had challenged the validity of the Forest Rights Act, passed in 2006 by Parliament to give back to traditional forest dwellers their right to access, manage and govern forests within their village boundaries.
The apex court asked the chief secretaries of the states concerned to file affidavits stating whether the incumbents in respect of whom the rejection orders have been passed, have been evicted or not and if not, the reasons for the same.
“In the wake of the Supreme Court order for eviction of over one million adivasis and traditional forest dwellers from land in their occupation, the politburo of the CPI(M) demands that the Modi government should without any further delay issue an ordinance to protect all adivasis and traditional forest dwellers from eviction,” the CPI(M) claimed.
The party in a statement claimed the adivasis were being “punished” for no fault of theirs but because of the “utter failure” of Central and state governments to implement the law. “According to the latest figures in December 2018, of a total of 42.19 lakh claims received across the country, only 18.89 lakh or just over 40 per cent claims have been accepted,” the party said.
“The rejections are often arbitrary, against the recommendations of the gram sabha and driven by lobbies who want to handover the forests to private parties and businesses. Lakhs of appeals are pending against the rejection,” the statement said. Politburo member Brinda Karat in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the counsel arguing for the Central government in them matter was absent from the court on the crucial date.
“This betrayal of the rights of adivasis was the culmination of the connivance of the ministry concerned with the petitioners. Many of the petitioners in the case are retired officers of the Forest department. At no point in these years did the legal representatives of your government take a strong position in court in defence of the rights of adivasis and traditional forest dwellers,” she wrote.
Brinda Karat also alleged that while Section 4 (5) of the Forest Rights Act specifies that no one can be evicted without proper procedure, but authorities who are supposed to follow this procedure are themselves responsible for the violation and arbitrary rejection of claims even those claims which have been recommended by the gram sabhas.
“Community Forest Rights are not being recognised and land occupied by adivasis is being handed over to big companies for various projects and also for mining under the programme of ‘ease of business’. “Your government has adopted ordinances on other issues. It will be highly unjust to adivasis and traditional forest dwellers if an ordinance is not passed immediately to protect them from eviction,” she alleged in the letter to the prime minister.
