NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday targeted the Centre over protests by villagers in Odisha’s Koraput district against alleged violations of the law to “bulldoze clearances” for bauxite mining, and said Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram should be concerned as to why such agitations are taking place in different parts of the state.
Kalinga Alumina Ltd is being accused of illegally diverting about 400 acres of forest lands over which agitationists have traditional and spiritual rights guaranteed under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
“The Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments have constituted Task Forces to institutionalise RSS role in the implementation of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and Forest Rights Act, 2006. Odisha will soon be the third state,” he said in a post on X.
“These Task Forces subvert the basic democratic structure of implementation of these two laws passed by Parliament. The Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS affiliate, is the driving force behind this hijacking of statutory provisions.
Both PESA, 1996 and FRA, 2006 emerged out of people’s movements. Their essential character in letter and spirit is being deliberately sabotaged by such Task Forces which have executive responsibilities as well,” Ramesh said.