No big projects in tribal areas: GoM

A Group of Ministers has cleared the draft tribal policy disallowing projects that can lead to huge displacement of tribal population, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jul 8, 2008, 01:12:07 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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For those eyeing tribal areas for starting big projects, there is some bad news. A Group of Ministers has cleared the draft tribal policy disallowing projects that can lead to huge displacement of tribal population.

The policy, cleared by GoM headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patel, will now be placed before the cabinet for its approval, a senior tribal affairs ministry official said. “A cabinet note has already been prepared,” the official said.

The cabinet constituted a GoM in July 2007 to discuss contentious issues in the draft tribal policy after several Union ministers objected to clauses on restriction on starting new projects, regulations for rehabilitation of displaced tribals and ensuring benefit for tribals from new projects.

The GoM has reportedly accepted the ministry’s viewpoint that displacement resulting from large projects, even if they are in public interest, causes an “irreparable” damage to tribal culture and convert them from land managers to daily wagers.

However, the GoM has asked the ministry to define big projects in clearer terms. The draft policy had stated that projects that lead to displacement of 50,000 people, majority of whom are tribals, should not be undertaken. The ministry had also said that big projects also cause a huge damage to natural flora and fauna, 63 per cent of which is in 50 tribal districts of India.

The new policy, if notified, can mean end of road for big mining projects in tribal areas, which cover 15 per cent of geographical area of the country. Starting projects like Pasco Steel in tribal belt of Orissa, which has caused a lot of resentment, would become difficult once the policy comes into force, a ministry official admitted.

In case of displacement, the policy says that tribals would get land for land in the tribal zone itself so that they can sustain their livelihood through traditional methods. The GoM has also agreed for conducting mandatory social impact assessment before starting projects in tribal areas.

The policy also envisages improvement in Human Development Index of tribals, which has plummeted to the lowest level since Independence. “The out of school children, school drop out rate and literacy rates among tribal girls is among the lowest for different social groups in India,” the draft tribal policy said. The tribal affairs ministry expected to put the policy for cabinet consideration before the end of July. “The tribal affairs minister has already spoken to the prime minister in this regard,” a ministry official said.

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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