Why limit Gram Sabhas to 12 villages, MoTA asks state

The New Indian Express (Bhubaneswar), June 9, 2013

By Express News Service - BHUBANESWAR

09th June 2013 11:35 AM

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has taken strong exception to the Odisha Government’s decision to conduct gram sabha in just 12 villages for settlement of the cultural and religious claims of the tribals of the Niyamgiri hills where the Bauxite Mining Project (BMP) is proposed.

With the State Government sticking to its guns __ Chief Secretary B K Patnaik wrote a letter on June 1 to Secretary, MOTA, Vibha Puri Das, explaining the selection of the villages __ the Ministry has clarified that limiting the convening of the gram sabha to 12 villages is not in accordance with the April 18 order of the Supreme Court.

 In her reply, Das said the Ministry has received several copies of claims over Niyamgiri forests and sacred areas from villages over and above the 12 selected by the State Government. It shows that Niyamgiri forests are shared not just by 12 villages since a number of other villages in Kalahandi and Rayagada too share religious and cultural rights over it.

The Ministry had laid down certain steps to arrive at the exact number of villages and hamlets where forest dwellers have customary religious and cultural rights and seek to stake claims as per the Forest Rights Act.

“The list of villages where rights of forest dwellers are guaranteed under FRA or where cultural and religious rights are likely to be affected cannot be arbitrarily decided by the State Government. It is to be decided by the people, i.e. gram sabha, where claims would be filed through a transparent manner so that no genuine gram sabha, which has a legitimate claim, is left out of the process,” Das’ letter said.

The Ministry emphasised that the FRA deals with recognition of habitat rights too and stipulates that all particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PTGs) receive their rights in consultation with the traditional institutions of the PTGs and their claims are filed before the gram sabhas. “Since the rights to be addressed include habitat rights, it must be ensured that the process of claims covers all the villages and settlements which share these rights,” the June 7 letter of Das to the Chief Secretary said.  Patnaik, in his June 1 letter, had stated that the April 18 orders of the apex court have to be read in conjunction with the interim order of December 6 when the State Government had filed an affidavit which comprised 12 villages on the slopes of Niyamgiri hills. Seven are in Rayagada district while five are in Kalahandi.