NIRD meet for protecting tribals' rights

Protecting the rights of tribals and rural communities, particularly over land and local resources, would be one of the effective ways to combat naxalism, according to a meeting organised here by National Institute of Rural Development.
The two-day consultative meet on 'Development Challenges in Left Wing Extremism-affected districts', has also suggested ways like empowerment of local communities, implementation of provisions of Forest Rights Act and new Land Acquisition law in toto.
Besides measures like restoration of accountability and trust element on the district administrators, the meeting which concluded today also proposed prevention of mass migration and exploitation of the poor by the middlemen.

Giving summary of the deliberations, NIRD Director M V Rao said in a press release tonight the participants were unanimous that supremacy of gram sabhas should be respected and the respective village panchayats and local tehsildar did not have any authority to bypass the grama sabha on all land related issues.
Former member of Planning Commission B N Yugandhar, in his closing remarks exhorted the district Collectors to take a holistic approach under the PESA and Forest Rights Act, which focused on empowering tribals and restoring their rights as sons-of-the-soil, rather than following diktats of the forest department.
He also wanted the Collectors to revoke all "petty cases" filed against tribals so that their confidence in the government was restored.