Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Finally Government rolled out the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in J&K. The law was extended to J&K on Oct 31st 2019 when the 1st order under JK Re-organization Act 2019 was issued, but the same was not operationalized for more than a year due to unknown reasons. Now without any proper awareness the law is being rolled out. Gram sabhas have been held to constitute the Forest Rights Committees (FRCs) , but the presence of people has been very minimal in these meetings which defeats the essence of this act. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) doesn’t make it mandatory to make the law operational within a specific period. In Fact the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and United National Development Programme (UNDP) have given clear guidelines in 2015 that no cut off dates or deadlines be followed in FRA implementation.
Forest Rights Committee
Under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the Gram Sabha which consists of all adults of the village have to elect a 15 member Forest Rights Committee (FRC) at village level. Rule 11 (1) (a) of Forest Rights Act 2006 says that Gram Sabha shall (a) call for claims and authorize the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) to accept the claims and such claims shall be made within a period of three months from the date of such calling of claims along with at least two of the evidences mentioned in rule 13, shall be made within a period of three months. Provided that the Gram Sabha may, if considered necessary, extend such period of three months after recording the reasons thereof in writing. This makes it clear that the Gram Sabha has the powers to extend the time of receiving the claims for Forest Rights from villagers. Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) the nodal agency of FRA kept this thing into consideration and made necessary guidelines explained below.
J&K Government is said to be directing the field officials to complete the entire process by 31st March 2021, that is why people are asked to hold meetings amid snow and freezing temperatures in villages. Why isn’t the Gram Sabha asked to start accepting claims with effect from April 1st when the weather improves ? They could do that even without the Govt’s directions but the unfortunate problem is that these people are unaware of their powers under the FRA 2006. During an interaction with me noted Forest Rights Activist and researcher Y Giri Rao told me that even after 14 years of enactment of Forest Rights Act not even 10 % people in country have been benefitted.
“In Bihar mere one percent of people have been benefited till date. In Jharkhand only 10 % have got justice and in Orissa mere 9% tribals and traditional forest dwellers have got the legitimate rights over forests” he added.
Gram Sabha inside rooms ?
Before holding Gram Sabha meetings the Govt was supposed to issue a gazette notification through J&K Tribal Affairs Department wherein they will provide details of villages where people can claim the rights under FRA. We are still unaware whether the JK Tribal Affairs Department has been made the Nodal Department or not ? Most of the FRA meetings have been organized by the Forest Department at top which goes against the principles of this legislation. Government made some people in villages to hold “closed door meetings” which have been labelled as Gram Sabha meetings. There has been resistance from people as well. In these meetings 10 to 15 member Forest Rights Committee (FRC) members have been elected. In the bone chilling cold with 4 to 5 feet snow on ground in most of the forest villages Gram Sabha were hardly held. Have these meetings been held in places like Tulail , Gurez or Machil which are totally cut off from the rest of J&K ? At many places not even 5 people were present in the meeting but they elected 15 member FRC ? I don’t blame the officials of the Rural Development Department or members of Panchayat for all this. It is the Govt at top which is enforcing this. They seem to be under a confusion that by March 31st Govt has to implement FRA 2006 in J&K . This is not the case at all. FRA is a continuous process with no time period to implement the act. There are more than 5000 village Panchayats in J&K. The average village population consists of more than 2500 people and not even one percent people have participated in the FRA gram sabha meetings. Thus is killing FRA’s spirit.
No deadline
As per the FRA guidelines jointly prepared by Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India office in 2015 there is no time limit for receiving FRA claims. Processing of applications by Gram Sabhas have to be done as per Forest Rights Rules 2012 especially proviso to Rule 11 (1) (a), which provides that the Gram Sabha shall call for the claims and authorize the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) to accept the claims. Since the Gram Sabha is the “authority to initiate the process for determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights or both” the commencement of the process must be made by the Gram Sabha, and not the Forest Rights Committee. The guideline further reads :
“The FRA is intended to recognize the rights of the country’s poorest and most marginalized people. Such communities frequently will not even become aware of the existence of this legislation for long periods. Imposing a cut-off date would amount to penalizing them for the failure of the state machinery to inform them of their rights”
If Govt is really serious about implementing the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in J&K, then first of all list of villages be notified. Then a massive awareness campaign has to be launched. School teachers , officials of Rural Development Department , Revenue officials and NGO’s be involved in this campaign. The role of the Forest Department has to be restricted as they are the respondent party under FRA. Further Gram Sabha / FRC meetings must be held when the weather improves. Ensure these meetings are more democratic and there is enough participation of people which includes women as well. The Government must stop issuing cut off dates for implementing FRA which goes against 2015 Govt of India guidelines issued by Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA).
Conclusion
Gram Sabha under Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA) is a Quasi-Judicial body. The Government should have instead ensured better participation of people through print and electronic media so as to make FRA implementation a democratic process. Unfortunately majority of the Gram Sabhas were held in complete secrecy. Women were further sidelined in these closed door meetings. I was hopeful that the J&K Govt will launch FRA with a big bash but the way it has been kickstarted is quite disappointing . What all is being done defeats the very essence of this legislation. We have brought the matter into notice of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha some days back when a delegation of RTI Movement met with him in Srinagar. We hope he considers our suggestions vis a vis Forest Rights Act….
(The author is Founder & Chairman Jammu & Kashmir RTI Movement )
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