From national mission to effectively implement Forest Rights Act (FRA) to withdrawing all amendments made by PM Narendra Modi-led central government to Forest Conservation and Land acquisition Acts, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge unveiled ‘Adivasi Sankalp’ comprising six guarantees Tuesday, the party’s manifesto for the tribal community. Kharge listed the guarantees, including reviving the Scheduled Caste Plan and the Tribal Sub-Plan, emphasising that Congress would protect tribal rights as well as their “zameen, jungle and jal”. Elaborating on the guarantees, Kharge said if voted to power, Congress would set up a “national mission” for the implementation of FRA through a dedicated FRA division, separate budget and action plans. “We will ensure settlement of all pending FRA claims within 1 year and establish a process to review all rejected claims within 6 months,” he said. The Forest Rights Act, enacted by the UPA government in 2006, is about giving forest dwellers ownership rights of the land they have been staying on. More than 15 years later, just about half of individual claim applications have been settled. The second Congress promise was to “withdraw all amendments made by the Modi Government to Forest Conservation and Land Acquisition Acts” which it claimed “have caused such great distress to the Adivasis.” The significant amendment brought by the BJP government on Forest Conservation Act (FCA) of 1980 concerns the definition of forest. A 1996 SC order had ensured that for purposes of FCA, the dictionary definition of forest must be used. Last year, the Modi government brought in an amendment to the FCA, one of the provisions of which was to make the law applicable only on lands classified as forests in government records. Kharge also promised that the Congress will “notify all habitations or groups of habitations where STs are the largest social group as Scheduled Areas - in all States and UTs and will enact state laws in conformity with the central Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act .” On revival of Scheduled Caste Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan, he said the party will make it “enforceable by law”. “They (tribals) are being harassed, their lands are being taken away, they are made to work as bonded labour. We will ensure, through this guarantee, to free them from all this,” he said.
