Almost two years after the Congress launched a countrywide campaign against the Modi government-sponsored “anti-poor” amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, party vice president Rahul Gandhi will spearhead a similar movement against the violations in the Forest Rights Act of 2006.
Starting in early August, his object is to pin the government down on subversion of the FRA to the detriment of tribals and forest dwellers.
Party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh, stressing that the Modi government “had emasculated and subverted the FRA”, said Mr Gandhi would start by travelling to Vishakapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh to address a convention of forest dwellers there on the subject.
He will follow this up by addressing similar conventions in Chattisgarh and Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra.
The other states that Mr Gandhi will visit as part of the FRA campaign will be Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Telangana and Odisha.
Early in May, Mr Gandhi had meetings with the party chiefs of these States on this issue. Later that month, the PCC chiefs participated in a sensitisation programme where they were briefed by NGOs and experts.
The three issues that the FRA campaign will focus on are: the non-implementation of community rights, the high rate of rejection of applications from individuals seeking ownership rights and the lack of irrigation facilities, bank loans etc for those who finally secure their pattas .
Mr Ramesh pointed out that thanks to the violation of community rights, industrialists like Adani have been able to get land for coal mining in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja district in violation of the law, without the necessary consultations with the gram sabha.
In the run–up to Mr Gandhi’s FRA campaign, each of the chosen States has set up FRA Task Forces, Odisha state chief Prasad Harichandan said, adding they have already begun the groundwork to mobilise people around the three critical issues of individual rights, community rights and governmental interventions to make the land more productive as well as lobby for better prices for minor forest produce.
Mr Harichandan also pointed out that in States such as Maharashtra and Odisha, the role of the gram sabha — as mentioned in the law — has been diluted by the setting up of committees manned by officials from various departments to look at the question of acquisition of land.
“What Rahul Gandhi wants to do is to secure for the tribal people all that is guaranteed by the Forest Rights Act and PESA ( Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 is a central law enacted to cover the "Scheduled areas" not covered in the 73rd amendment or Panchayati Raj Act),” Mr Harichandan said.
