New Delhi | Jul 21, 2016: Several civil society organisations working on forest rights have just submitted a petition to the Rajya Sabha where the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) bill is likely to be considered.
The bill which is likely to unlock more than Rs 40,000 crores for plantations in states is a matter of concern for forest rights groups because they feel gram sabhas do not have enough say in compensatory afforestation projects that will take place on their customary land. The CAMPA fund is mainly the accumulation of the funds paid by user agencies or corporations for several infrastructure and other projects that involved diversion of forest land over the years.
Though the bill was passed in Lok Sabha last year, the representation of gram sabhas was a sore point, Congress had raised the concern with BJP. But a consensus has now been reached between them with BJP assuring to address the forest rights related concerns.
But about 45 organisations working on forest rights across the country, on Thursday once again raised the concerns in their petition to Rajya Sabha. "The Bill in the present form is fundamentally opposed to the Forest Rights Act by not addressing the legal rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers recognized under the law and by not requiring the consent of the gram sabhas for implementation of compensatory afforestation on their customary lands," the petition reads adding that "The Forest Rights Act (FRA) now legally recognizes and vests forest rights of forest dwellers in about 1.7 lakh villages over at least 40 million hectares of forest land. Community Forest Resource rights recognized under the Act now constitute a new forest category to be governed and managed by the gram sabhas and forest rights holders. Therefore any government program on forestlands, including with CAMPA funds has to be based on the framework of governance under FRA."
The organisations appealed that the bill be not passed till the concerns of gram sabhas is addressed. "If the CAMPA Bill is now passed by Parliament in its current form, it will represent a reversal of the commitment for justice made in the FRA to the adivasis and forest dwelling citizens of India," they said. The organisations who have filed the petition include All India Forum of Forest Movement, Vasundhara, Kalpavriksha, Mines, Minerals and People and many others.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)