Bhubaneswar. 28 Sept. 2018

Thousands of adivasis and forest dwellers from more than 18 districts, mostly from tribal regions of Odisha called for a State level “Mass Public Protest” under the banner of CSD Odisha today raising their strong protest against and demanded for withdrawal of anti-tribal and forest dwellers law like Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 (commonly known as CAMPA) and Draft National Forest Policies 2018. Such policies are organized conspiracy to take away the forest rights of the forest dwellers recognized under FRA. After more than a decade the progress of FRA implementation in Odisha is very poor due to serious issues and challenges faced in the implementation and recognition of forest rights, which was raised in today’s mass protest. The protest march was led by Gopinath Majhi and other leaders of CSD and culminated in a public address by forest dwellers came from various districts near PMG. The meeting was presided by Narendra Mohanty, core body members of CSD and speakers like Pradeep Sahu, Prafulla Samantara, Anna Kujjur, Suresh Panigrahi, Karmi Besra, Balraju Gemel, Trilochan Punji, Radhakanta Sethi, Akhya Pani, Sala Marndi, Lochan Bariha, Bijaya Upaddhyay, Pradipta Nayak, Kamal Saimajhi, Sandeep Pattnayak, Bijay Swain, Biranchi Bariha and others. A team of delegation submitted memorandum to Governor of Odisha and Chief Secretary, Govt of Odisha drawing attention for immediate remedial of their issues.

Their demands are as follows:

  1. Repeal Anti-environment and anti-people Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 that enacted to reverse and wither away the forest rights recognised under FRA.
  2. Withdraw MoEF&CC guideline (F.No.11-423/2011- FC, of 8 Nov. 2017) creating “land banks” from revenue and degraded forest land to raise compensatory afforestation.
  3. Not to bypass the “authority” of gramsabhas in FRA implementation but need to empowerment gramsabha in campaign mode.

4. Withdraw of anti-conservation and anti-tribal draft National Forest Policy, 2018 proposed by MoEF&CC, Govt. of India. This is anti-FRA and Anti-environment, would destroy India’s forest by handing over to private Companies for management.

5. Withdraw 28 March 2017 order of National Tiger Conservation Authority illegally issued to subvert FRA in Tiger Habitat and forcing eviction of adivasis from their ancestral land for wildlife conservation.

6. Stop diversion of rich biodiversity areas for development projects such as mines, industry, dams, etc to avoid destruction of wildlife habitats and increase human-animal conflicts.

7. Allow gramsabhas for “free trade and issue transit permit” by printing their own permit book as per FRA and strict penal action against officials creating illegal obstruction in exercise of their rights over minor forest produce (MFP) .

8. Review and monitoring of the progress of FRA implementation by State level (SLMC) to SDLC and DLC levels regularly.

9. Withdraw the anti-FRA and anti-people JFMC/ VSS resolution and dissolve all VSS in Odisha. Mandatory approval of gramsabha for any forestry activities within community forest resource areas of gramsabhas.

10. Strict instruction for SDLC and DLC to accept claims and recognize the IFR of OTFDs with special priority and accept recommendation of gramsabhas.

10. Capacity building of line department officials and gramsabhas on procedures and guidelines issued by Revenue Dept., Board of Revenue for conversion of forest, un-surveyed villages into revenue villages.

11. IFR and CFR rights in mining areas are withdrawn and not recognized for eligible claimants. Need monitoring of FRA violation in mining areas of Odisha and respect gramsabha decision during forest land diversion process.

12. Urgently instruct the Collectors to facilitate the process to recognize habitat rights of PVTGs and dispose of long pending habitat rights claims immediately by issue of titles.

13. Lack of better budgetary allocation in capacity building of gramsabhas at village level and line dept officials constrained smooth implementation of FRA looks conspiracy of systematic suppression of FRA.

ज़रा हमारा यूट्यूब चैनल सब्सक्राइब करें

Hastakshep