The Hindu : ``Conversion of forest villages: PM's speech based on facts''

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

National

National

``Conversion of forest villages: PM's speech based on facts''

The following is a statement from the Prime Minister's Office:

This refers to the report titled "Where PM's statement came as a surprise" in your newspaper dated July 1, 2003. The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, addressed a rally in Mandla on June 17, where he made a statement on the issue of conversion of forest villages into revenue villages in Madhya Pradesh.

The report by your New Delhi correspondent, I am afraid, is factually incorrect and misleading. His insinuation that the Prime Minister was "wrongly briefed" as well as the reported allegation levelled by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shri Digvijay Singh, that the Prime Minister had "unknowingly committed a mistake" are baseless and motivated. The issues raised by the Prime Minister in his speech were based on facts and correctly reflect the present status and the stand of the Government of India in this regard. A reputed newspaper like The Hindu, you will appreciate, ought to have contacted the PMO about the factual position before publishing the report.

The factual position in the matter is as under: The Prime Minister, in his speech at Mandla, said that the Central Government had fulfilled its obligations regarding conversion of forest villages into revenue villages and the ball was now in the court of the State Government. He also said if there were still certain problems at the Central level, they would be sorted out.

The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has subsequently written to the Prime Minister expressing his gratitude about the assurances given by the Prime Minister regarding the conversion of forest villages into revenue villages and regularisation of encroachments. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has furnished the relevant information on the issue. The following points are germane in this regard.

(1) Government of India have already approved conversion of 82 forest villages into revenue villages accounting for a total area of 10,028.17 hectares between August 2002 and March 2003. In these cases, certain conditions were stipulated by the Central Government under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, for which the compliance report from the State Government is still awaited.

(2) In a meeting held between the Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh and representatives from MoEF on May 20, 2003, the State Government agreed to withdraw all defective proposals regarding conversion of forest villages into revenue villages and send a fresh proposal for consideration of the GoI. Based on the outcome of this meeting, MoEF has received an incomplete proposal from the Government of Madhya Pradesh on June 23, 2003 for conversion of forest villages into revenue villages in 27 districts involving 2,33,000 hectares of forest land in 925 forest villages. MoEF have examined the proposal and found that the area has increased many times compared to what was submitted in earlier proposals, which have subsequently been withdrawn by the State Government. Therefore, MoEF feels that the fresh proposal from GoMP necessitates a comprehensive site inspection and verification by the Regional Office of the Ministry located in Bhopal. Accordingly the Regional Office has been requested on June 24, 2003 for site inspection and verification.

(3) Regarding the regularisation of encroachments, the Central Government has already approved it in respect of over 1.03 lakh hectares of forest land in 1990 and 65,000 hectares in 2001 within the policy guidelines issued under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. In the rest of the proposals submitted by the State Government, it has been found that most of the forest area is under ineligible encroachments as per the policy guidelines issued under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as decided by the Union Cabinet in 1990 and issued by MoEF in the same year.

(4) GoI will take appropriate action as and when a complete proposal is received in proper format from the State Government.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National