NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Friday passed by voice vote the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005, seeking to recognise and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwellers.

The redrafted Bill was adopted with several important amendments to the one tabled in 2005 and includes other traditional forest-dwellers also instead of only the Scheduled Tribes. The cut-off date, too, has been fixed as December 13, 2005 as against October 31, 1980 in the original Bill. The dwellers would have to be residing in forest land for three generations or 75 years for entitlement to land rights and the rights to collect and market the forest products to the dwellers. Now, each family would be entitled to four hectares of forest land as against 2.5 hectares envisaged in the previous Bill.

Replying to the debate, Union Tribal Affairs Minister P.R. Kyndiah said the House would create history on Friday by recognising, once and for all, that tribal people are integral to the revival, survival and sustenance of the forest eco-system. "We have ensured livelihood and food security of the tribal people who must be the effective owners of the minor forest products. Instead, they have been working as coolies appointed by corporations," he said.

The Bill was unanimously adopted after an amendment moved by Jual Oram of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on allowing the tribals to hunt wild animals symbolically and at least once a year was defeated.

S. K. Bwiswmuthiary, independent Member of Parliament from Assam, also sought more powers to autonomous district and territorial councils to which the Minister said that the Government was sensitive to the problems of the North-Eastern region and was willing to hold more consultations with the people of the region to assuage any misconceptions about the Bill. "We are aware of the seriousness of the influx of illegal people in the region and will deal with it effectively."

Mr. Kyndiah said there was unanimity on the fact that the forest dwelling people had not been given their due share and in the absence of land rights they had been living as encroachers and under a sense of uncertainty and alienation. "We are focussing attention on the voiceless India and are attempting to remove fear from their minds," he said.

Earlier, the members made a vociferous demand to put the Bill, once passed from Rajya Sabha, in the Ninth Schedule to keep it away from judicial review and ensure that the tribal areas now had the basic minimum facilities of health and education.

Initiating the discussion, Mr. Jual Oram welcomed the Bill but criticised the Government for not bringing it in the right manner since the members had received the amendments at the last minute. He said the Government did not seem comfortable with the tabling of the Bill but was doing it under pressure. Instead, the Government wanted to protect the tigers.

Madhusudan Mistry of the Congress hoped that the Bill would be implemented immediately and effectively and that the gram sabhas would have the ultimate authority while Yerran Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party said the Bill should be put in the Ninth Schedule.

Bhubaneshwar Prasad Mehta of the Communist Party of India said that mafia was denuding the forest wealth and blaming the tribals for it while Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress said only a small percentage of land would go to the tribals under the Bill.

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