When Has The Environment Ministry Believed In
Dialogue, Discussion or Democracy?
By Campaign for Survival and Dignity
13 June, 2011
Forestrightsact.com
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh wants to have his cake and eat it too. Today, calling upon the Orissa government to not use force against the anti-POSCO movement, he declared: "All parties should adhere to democratic norms and procedures... Dialogue and discussion, not coercion is as essential to ecological security as it is to democracy." We agree. Why then does his Ministry consistently break every law that requires such "dialogue and discussion", not least in the case of POSCO itself?
Take the question of diversion of forest land for projects approved by MoEF since 2008. All the three committees in the case of POSCO, and the National Advisory Council found that at the policy level, the current practice of giving away forest land without bothering to respect the rights of forest dwelling communities is a criminal offence under law. The law in fact requires dialogue and democracy, since the forest land cannot be taken without the consent of the local communities, and without a certificate from them stating that their rights have been respected.
Yet the Ministry has continued to violate the law. In the case of POSCO, the same Minister who today calls for democracy declared that he will be bound neither by law and democracy - and gave away the land without taking the consent of local communities or respecting their rights. No dialogue or discussion there, when the law required it. The standoff of the past two days between thousands of people and the police in the POSCO area is a direct result of the grossly criminal decision of this Ministry.
This is the case not only in POSCO, but in hundreds of projects across the country. As per public information, the Ministry's vaunted July 30, 2009 order stating the requirements of the Forest Rights Act for diversion of forest land has not been implemented in any major project so far. As recently as June 5th, the Minister informed the Times of India that he plans to amend this order since, essentially, the Ministry finds it too hard to implement it. They can collect certificates from thousands of forest officers and Collectors across the country, but they will not ask those same officers to seek a resolution at a gram sabha meeting as required by law. This would be a violation of federalism, we are told; by which standard the forest clearance process itself is a violation of federalism. The real reason is painfully obvious. Requiring a resolution from a gram sabha meeting attended by the affected people may force the Ministry to engage in a "discussion and dialogue" with them, which, of course, it does not want to do. Much easier to grant illegal clearance for the land grab, and then issue pious statements dripping of crocodile tears.
Finally, illegal diversion of forest land is only the most glaring violation of democracy in forests today. Whether it is the Green India Mission, compensatory afforestation or illegal relocation in tiger reserves, the Ministry is pouring thousands of crores into schemes and projects designed precisely to negate democracy and preserve the autocratic control of the Forest Department. In this they are of course ably assisted by the other agencies of the Centre, including the Tribal Ministry.
If Jairam Ramesh is speaking today as a Minister of the Central government and not as a moralising philosopher, let the government live up to his words. The ten year old children fainting from the heat on the borders of Dhinkia gram panchayat, fighting Centre, state and POSCO to defend their lands, can teach the Minister and his bosses something about discussion, dialogue and democracy - and most of all about justice.
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
www.forestrightsact.com, [email protected]
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