CHENNAI: The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is learnt to have walked out of a review meeting with senior Tamil Nadu government officials on Tuesday within 30 minutes of its commencement, after several key bureaucrats, including the chief secretary and forest secretary, were absent, raising questions over the state’s response to long-pending issues concerning implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
The significance of Tuesday’s meeting was heightened by the fact that NCST was having a review meeting with senior state officials after a gap of seven years. The last such meeting was held in 2019.
NCST, a constitutional body established under Article 338A, is mandated to investigate and monitor safeguards for Scheduled Tribes. The 12-member NCST delegation, led by chairman Antar Singh Arya, was in Tamil Nadu for a two-day review of issues concerning STs. On Monday, the commission interacted with around 100 tribal representatives and leaders from across districts with significant tribal populations.
According to official sources, the meeting with tribal representatives was dominated by complaints over the implementation of FRA, particularly alleged difficulties faced by forest-dwelling communities in securing recognition of their individual and community forest rights. Land-related grievances were also raised.
FRA recognises a range of rights of forest-dwelling STs and other traditional forest dwellers, including rights over habitation, self-cultivation, grazing, fishing, access to water bodies and community forest resources.
Tuesday’s meeting began at 10 am, but the commission is learnt to have left within 30 minutes. The delegation was particularly miffed over the absence of Forest Secretary Usha Kakarla, given that several of the issues raised by tribal representatives related to forest rights.
Sources said the chief secretary, revenue secretary and health secretary were also absent. The forest department was represented by a principal chief conservator of forests. The commission reportedly questioned why the forest secretary was not present despite the issues raised on FRA implementation and subsequently decided not to proceed with the meeting.
The latest monthly progress report (MPR) of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs on FRA implementation, for the period ending June 30, 2026, also provides a snapshot of Tamil Nadu’s progress. The state had received 34,667 claims, of which 33,119 are individual and 1,548 community claims. It distributed 16,508 titles, comprising 15,442 individual and 1,066 community titles. As many as 12,711 claims had been rejected.
When asked, Chief Secretary M Sai Kumar, who is also the head of the state-level monitoring committee for implementation of FRA, told TNIE that he had met the commission before the review meeting. “I told them in the morning that I had a collectors’ meeting chaired by the chief minister for monsoon preparedness. I met them at the Secretariat along with the CM prior to that,” he said. Forest Secretary Usha Kakarla did not respond to calls from TNIE.
