Two union ministers, Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, have asked their cabinet colleague, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, to ?withdraw? his ministry?s objections to a notification of the Maharashtra government relating to management of forest villages.
The Congress-ruled Maharashtra government had in May this year notified a set of rules, which was seen by the Tribal Affairs Ministry to be ?prima facie in violation of? The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, popularly known as the Forest Rights Act. On August 13, Oram?s ministry told the Maharashtra government to keep these rules ?in abeyance till the Ministry of Tribal Affairs examines it in consultation with legal counsel and conveys its views?. As a result, the rules could not be operationalised.
The rules were framed, ostensibly, to strengthen the implementation
of the Forest Rights Act, which gives people living in
the forests legal property rights over land and many forest products. These legal rights have to be established by the government through distribution of legal documents. But some of the provisions were seen as weakening the Forest Rights Act, prompting the Tribal Ministry to act.
Acting on representations from a sarpanch of an affected village and a Congress MLA from Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, Gadkari and Javadekar have told Oram that the state government had framed these rules under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 which is administered by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and not by his Tribal Affairs Ministry. In separate communications, they have informed Oram that the Tribal Affairs Ministry did not have any jurisdiction over the matter.
Gadkari, in a Hindi letter written on August 19, advised Oram to withdraw his ministry?s order and take an ?appropriate decision? in the future in consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the state government.
Javadekar was more direct in instructing his ministry?s Secretary to ?convey immediately? that as the matter pertained to the Forest Act, the order issued by the Tribal Affairs Ministry ?should be withdrawn?.
