Faced with flak from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and activists from Niyamgiri for its decision to limit gram sabhas to only 12 villages, the Odisha government is mulling to seek legal opinion over the possibility of expanding scope of such meetings.
“We are exploring legal angles to suggestions offered by MoTA on expanding scope of gram sabhas. If required, views of the law department will be taken,” said SC & ST development secretary Santosh Sarangi.
Defending the state government’s stand to conduct gram sabhas in only 12 villages located on Niyamgiri hill slopes, he said. “A close scrutiny of the Supreme Court order dated April 18 would suggest the apex court is referring to the 12 hill slope villages where the meetings were held earlier for settlement of claims under Forest Right Act (FRA). It would not be feasible to hold gram sabhas in all villages of Rayagada and Kalahandi districts. Besides, the process would also be very time consuming.”
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Earlier, citing lack of clarity in the Supreme Court order regarding holding of gram sabhas, the SC & ST department had consulted the law department for interpreting the order. In accordance with the views submitted by the law department, the state government decided to hold gram sabhas for deciding fate of bauxite extraction from Niyamgiri hills, in 12 villages. These included seven villages in Rayagada district and five in Kalahandi district
In his letter to MoTA, Odisha chief secretary B K Patnaik said, “At the time of filing of claims, neither the Union ministry of environment & forests nor MoTA had raised any issue before the Supreme Court regrading coverage of villages over and above the 12 hill slope villages.”
He also stated that a reading of the apex court's observation would make it clear that the reference is to the 12 hill slope villages for which affidavit was filed by the Odisha government.
However, refusing to agree to the state government's contention, the MoTA held that limiting gram sabha proceedings to only 12 villages is not in accordance with the Supreme Court order dated April 18 and directions issued by the ministry under Section 12 of FRA.
“The list of villages where rights of forest dwellers are guaranteed under the FRA or where cultural and religious rights are likely to be affected cannot be arbitrarily decided by the state government. It is to be decided by the people (palli sabha) where claims would be filed through a transparent manner so that no genuine gram sabha who have a legitimate claim is left out of the process. This is in line with para 59 of the apex court judgement,” Vibha Puri Das, secretary, MoTA wrote to Odisha chief secretary B K Patnaik recently.
