Won’t implement forest act again, says Orissa

NEW DELHI: South Korean steel maker Posco’s `12,000-crore project in Orissa appears to be in for the long haul. Even as the Forest Advisory Committee is considering its recommendations on the project’s compliance to forest laws, the Orissa government has stressed that a demand to open the issue of claims under the Forest Rights Act, could result in violence in the area.

The state government has made it clear that there is “no question of implementing the Forest Rights Act again” as the law as been administered in its “true spirit”.

Sources said that the state government has in a written submission indicated that attempts to implement the Forest Rights Act in the project area “all over again” could “lead to violence”. Even as it raised the spectre of violence, the state government has fallen back on its record of implementing the Act to stress that all claims in the project area have been settled.

The Posco review committee appointed by the environment ministry has clearly stated that the implementation of the Forest Rights Act has been incomplete in the project area. Both the majority and dissenting reports of the Posco review panel have clearly stated there have been shortcomings and inadequacies in the state’s implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

Three reports — two by the Posco review committee and one by a subcommittee of the joint panel of the ministries of tribal affairs and environment — have documented that the claims of “other forest dwellers” in the project area have not been settled. “Other Forest dwellers” refers to non-tribal population who have been dependent on the forest for their livelihood for the last 75 years or three generations.

The Orissa government assertion that all claims have been settled has not been backed up by the requisite gram sabha resolutions. As per the August 2009 order of the environment ministry, forest clearance cannot be given till all claims under the Forest Rights Act have been settled and the gram sabha passes a resolution to this effect. The Orissa government has not been able to provide the environment ministry with the gram sabha resolutions.