The Centre and State governments should declare the tribal areas in the State under the 5th Schedule of the Constitution so that it provides protection to tribal people and does not alienate them from their land and natural resources, this was one of the resolutions passed during the workshop on Tribal Land and Forest Rights, held here on Wednesday.
Organised by the Village Reconstruction and Development Project (VRDP) - an NGO, A. Ashokan, State president of Environment and Consumer Counsel, M.L. Alphonse Raj, State Convener, Adivasis Development Initiative, The Nilgiris, A. Renganathan, Director, VRDP, discussed the problems faced by tribal people in the State and demanded the implementation of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 in the State.
Resolutions
At the end of the workshop resolutions passed included enabling tribal people to collect minor forest produce; providing protection to tribal people and forest dwellers who are dependent on the forest for their livelihood and not to evict them until the implementation of the Forest Act; providing 10 acre of land to those living and dependent on forest as mandated by the act and two acre land to the landless people living in plains. They also wanted the government to stop allotting forest lands for mining purposes and cancel lease agreement already made, implement special schemes for all tribal people without taking into account on the percentage of the census figures and providing 1.05 per cent reservation in Panchayat institutions according to the tribe population.
Free pattas
They wanted the Government Order 1168 issued in April 27, 1989, that prohibits issuance of free pattas to those cultivate in government lands in the hills, be revoked and steps to be initiated to issue pattas. They also wanted the funds under the Tribal Sub Plan not be transferred to other programmes and demanded two per cent reservation to tribal people in education and employment.
Published - February 12, 2015 12:00 am IST