Afforestation Bill stalled

BJP accuses Congress of denying benefits to tribals and others which it claimed would get from the passage of the Bill

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill could not be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, with the Congress blocking proceedings in the house till a vote was taken on the private member bill for special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress of denying benefits to tribals and others which it claimed  would get from the passage of the CAF Bill. Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, said, “In the Rajya Sabha today, the House did not function due to Andhra Pradesh issue being raised by Congress.  However, while raising the issue of Andhra Pradesh, the Congress is at the same time blocking funds to Andhra Pradesh and other states to the tune of thousands of crore of rupees.”

Over the weekend, the Congress had come out firmer and clearer against the Compensatory afforestation Bill. The clarity came along with the announcement that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s country-wide campaign on forest rights for tribals would begin from Andhra Pradesh on August 6.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member on Monday said, “The Bill is against the interests of Adivasis.”  On Sunday, in Bhubaneshwar he had said, “If the Bill in its present form is passed in Parliament, Maoist activities will increase.” He had also taken on the ruling Biju Janta Dal for not opposing the Bill, which the Congress says overrides tribal rights provided under the Forest Rights Act.

Congress leader’s statements on the CAF Bill came as clarity drawing away from the party’s ambiguity in the previous week. Last week, the party stitched a deal with the BJP for easier passage of the Bill in the upper House of Parliament. But, the deal fell apart when BJP blocked voting on the Congress MP’s private Bill for special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress consequently reverted to its intention to table an amendment against the bill. The amendments by the Congress require that consent from tribal and other forest dwellers’ gram sabha (village council) be made mandatory before plantation activity is undertaken on traditional forest lands using the funds that the proposed legislation would provide to state governments.

Under the Forest Rights Act, gram sabha is the statutory authority for permitting any activity on traditional forest lands. National Democratic Alliance’s compensatory afforestation Bill is meant to unlock more than Rs 40,000 crore for state governments to grow plantations. But, the proposed Bill does not explicitly require the plantation work by state forest departments to be done with prior informed consent of tribals. In the past, in several instances tribals have been displaced by state forest departments in the name of growing plantations. The BJP has rejected the need for explicitly mentioning the veto power of tribals in the Bill, which has already been passed by the Lok Sabha, stating that adherence to Forest Rights Act is implicit.

With the understanding between the BJP and the Congress on the CAF Bill not falling through, environment minister Anil Madhav Dave tried to wrestle back the pro-tribal plank for the government, saying, “By not allowing the introduction of CAF Bill, Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and poor people living in remote areas of forest have been deprived of employment and profits from forest. While for the last 10 years, the Congress could not distribute these funds, today when the government wants to distribute these funds, by placing hurdles, the Congress is blocking the development and progress of States.”

BJP’s  member of Rajya Sabha, Bhupendra Yadav, also accused the Congress of being anti-adivasis, saying it was stalling an important Bill which would have helped the tribals of the country. The Congress on its part is set to up the ante on tribal rights issue with Rahul Gandhi slated to launch a nationwide campaign on the Forest Rights Act. His tour will start from Andhra Pradesh on August 6. He is later slated to travel across Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Gujarat over the issue.