With the United Progressive Alliance government clearly unhappy with the drafts of two laws on food security and communal violence being framed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, the NAC has referred them to lawyer Indira Jaisingh.
“Indira Jaisingh is examining the two drafts from the legal angle, not for content,” an NAC source told TheHindu , adding the expectation was the bills would be ready in a month.
If the NAC's recommendations on food security were trashed by the Rangarajan panel, the working group on the Communal Violence Bill had a setback when two members of its advisory committee and two members of its drafting committee quit citing differences. These members are now drafting a parallel bill.
The key issue was the discomfort these members felt with the idea of a national authority taking on the role of the administration. Their view was that the district administration had to be made accountable, and if a national authority was given too many powers, it would dilute accountability and reduce the immediacy of response to any outbreak of violence.
An NAC member told TheHindu that this view had been taken on board and the attempt was not to give the national authority a “monitoring” role.
Working groups
Meanwhile, when the NAC meets here on Thursday, its six working groups — on food security, the Communal Violence Bill, tribal development, denotified and nomadic tribes, transparency and accountability, and ICDS reforms — will report back to the council on the progress they have made.
While the working groups on food security and communal violence have readied the draft bills — now being vetted for their ability to pass muster in court — the tribal development working group's views were communicated to the government on March 12 on the changes it would like to see in the way the Forest Rights Act is administered. It has also set out clear guidelines on how to identify critical wildlife habitats.
The article was corrected for a factual error.
