NEW DELHI: It seems a tug of war has been going on for nearly a year within the government. On one side of the tug are Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar with the tacit support of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). On the other side is Jual Oram, the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs. However, going by the latest tilt, it looks like Oram has won the war.
The issue in question is the Maharashtra Village Forest Rules 2014, which gives rights to the state’s Forest Department to get control of forest management and the lucrative trade worth crores in forest produce such as tendu leaves and bamboo.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MTA) found the Maharashtra Village Forest Rules 2014, which gives rights to the state’s Forest Department to get control of forest management and the lucrative trade worth crores in forest produce, in violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The Act was enacted by the UPA government to empower tribals and other forest-dwellers to hold sole rights to manage the forests. Taking note of this, the ministry told Maharashtra that its rules were in violation of the FRA. The war of letters started when Oram’s ministry wrote to the Maharashtra government in August 2014, pointing out the prima facie violations. But Gadkari and Javadekar took up the case on behalf of Maharashtra and wrote to MTA requesting it to withdraw its opposition.
It did not succumb and wrote to Maharashtra government regularly. The MTA sent a letter to the Maharashtra government on April 22 this year, asking it to settle all claims as per FRA. Oram said that the ministry has put its foot down whenever the rights of tribals are violated. “Our ministry has always intervened on behalf of the tribals. We will not let anyone tamper with the rights,” he said.