Mr Naqvi further said the Congress had blocked the development of Dalits, tribals and weaker sections by creating hurdle in the passage of several important Bills in Parliament, for the last several sessions.
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“We will move the amendments and press for them in Rajya Sabha”, he said, adding the government’s suggestion of including their suggestions in the rules were not acceptable to them. In his amendment, former environment minister Jairam Ramesh had moved an amendment opposing the Bill, contending that plantations under compensatory afforestation often happen on land used by tribal communities. The legislation was listed for consideration and passing in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. SP is the third largest party in the Rajya Sabha.
“Government deliberately did not allow Rajya Sabha to take up voting on the Bill as it would have been a political defeat for it”, Ramesh said, adding that he has been a member of the Upper House for the last 12 years but had to witness a scene where a government has scuttled a Bill in this manner. The rights based organisations are of the view that if the CAMPA Bill gets passed in its present form, it would be a “disaster for the tribals and forest dwellers and would be in direct contradiction with the “historic” FRA, 2006 which they have owned after long struggle since India’s independence”.
Disturbed with the recent news reports on compromise of Indian National Congress Party with the ruling BJP Govt.at the Centre on the CAMPA Fund Bill, many rights based organisations working on Forest Rights Act, 2006 across the country are feeling aggrieved and are writing back to the Rahul Gandhi Office.
The Bill seeks to create a Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and a Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF).
Passage of CAMPA would ensure a windfall for the State governments. Rather the Bill in its present form over empowers the Forest Bureaucracy to use the CAMPA fund without the approval of the Gram Sabha.
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As many as 30,000 villages out of the total of 57,000 villages in Odisha can be provided community forest rights if FRA was properly implemented in Odisha, he said. “Who will decide what species will be plant?”, wonders CSD.
