Govt may tweak conflicting laws

In continuance with the government’s effort to empower people of Naxal affected areas, the government is considering significant changes in two Central laws to meet the aspirations of locals.

Updated on: Aug 11, 2010, 24:01:56 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In continuance with the government’s effort to empower people of Naxal affected areas, the government is considering significant changes in two Central laws to meet the aspirations of locals.

The two laws — Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, also called PESA, meant for scheduled tribe areas and Forest Rights Act (FRA) covering those living in forests —are said to contradict each other while identifying rights of the locals.

While PESA identified only tribal rights, FRA recognises rights of even traditional forest dwellers along with that of tribals. “It means that other forest dwellers cannot get any benefit under PESA,” a senior government official said.

It’s direct implication is that a forest dweller cannot head a Gram Sabha or any panchayati raj body as PESA prescribes that the chairman should be a tribal. Because of this clause under PESA, several gram sabhas have not been constituted. This problem is being faced in number of areas in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa.

“There is a conflict in the way the (two) laws have been drafted and are being operated,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said during a meeting of forest officials last Saturday.

The government has constituted a committee of secretaries headed by Member Secretary of Planning Commission Sudha Pillai to suggest changes in the two laws for better “synergy” in implementation. Panchayati Raj and Planning Commission have also suggested some changes in the two laws, which are “under discussion”.

One key change being considered is to allow other traditional forest dwellers, as identified in FRA, to be appointed as head of gram sabhas, if no tribals are available. All those who having been living in forests for three generations before December 2005 are considered traditional forest dwellers.

The changes, government officials believe, will help the state governments in better implementation of PESA, which was to be implemented within one year of notification in 1996 and 13 major flagship schemes through people’s participation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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