State governments have awarded illegal title deeds for 1.3 lakh acres of forestland, misusing the very provisions of a 2006 law enacted to safeguard tribals’ and other forest dwellers’ rights over their land. The charge comes from the new Union minister for tribal affairs, K.C. Deo, who says the states “misinterpreted” the law and ended up giving title deeds not only to forest dwellers but also to forest officials. “We are going...

Jairam Ramesh's removal as Environment Minister creates uncertainties for domestic environment policy and the deadlocked global climate talks. WHATEVER one may think of its overall impact, the recent Cabinet reshuffle was not exactly a damp squib. Its single most important component was Jairam Ramesh's replacement as the Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) by Jayanthi Natarajan, a relative political lightweight with very little...

CGNet Swara in Chhattisgarh is a mobile radio platform that has helped bring tribal issues to national attention. MAHADEV SINGH, a Baiga tribal person, hails from a village situated atop a forested hill near Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. While most of the neighbouring villages are electrified and welfare schemes from the government reach them to an extent, Mahadev's village has lost out in this regard owing to its inaccessibility. Mahadev and his...

The Land Acquisition Bill is a key issue before Parliament this monsoon session. A look at history would be useful. The concern with the extent and spread of agricultural land is not new. But the way in which it is being addressed certainly is. Much of the criticism of the Land Acquisition Bill has been about the provisions to safeguard irrigated, double cropped land. It is true these provisions will be...

The country’s first legislation on land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement is out as a first draft. Here is a sharp critique of the bill THE GOVERNMENT has made public the new Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement Bill, 2011, which FW has run in these columns over three days. This is what I think of it. In terms of the definition of public purpose, the Bill is more colonial...