A parliamentary panel has asked the environment ministry to “seriously consider” vesting Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other forest dwellers, who were forced to relocate due to development interventions, with tenurial and other incidental rights.
The Committee on Petitions, while flaying the “total apathy on the part of the government regarding the non- availability of basic amenities”, also recommended the ministry to work out some special financial package for such states to provide facilities such as schools, dispensaries and solar power, among other things, to people living in villages near forests.
“The committee has noted the long-standing insecurity of tenurial and access rights of forest- dwelling ST and other traditional forest dwellers who were forced to relocate due to state development interventions, especially amongst people living in forest areas/reserve forests (commonly known ‘Goth’, ‘Khatte' etc) for the last 30 to 50 years or even more,” the committee headed by BJP MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari, said in its ninth report tabled in Lok Sabha Sabha on Friday.
It added to address their concerns, it is the considered opinion of the Committee that the ministry should consider vesting them with tenurial and other incidental rights as well, even if it requires any further amendment to the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and rules made thereunder, which the Committee feels shall be purely in consonance with spirit of the said Act.