The two-day conference on Forests Rights, to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will begin in New Delhi from today. But Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Tushar A Chaudhary is apparently unhappy with the land distribution to the tribals in Gujarat following implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 passed by the Centre.

He told The Indian Express: “Out of the over 1.7 lakh applications filed by the tribals in Gujarat, only 5,500-odd were passed by the Divisional Level Committees (DLC). This is really slow compared to other states, and we have taken a serious note of the matter.”

Chaudhary, who had won the Bardoli Lok Sabha seat this year, said that in the next two days starting Wednesday, all chief ministers, chief secretaries and higher-ups from the forest departments will be representing issues related to forests and tribals in the conference. “We have asked the Government of Gujarat to discuss their issues in the implementation of the Act,” Chaudhary said.

Father Xavier, a tribal activist from Rajpipla in Narmada district, said the state Forest Department does not recognise the autonomy of the Gram Sabhas, Sub Divisional Level Committees (SDLC) and DLCs, which are the deciding authority over allotment of land to the tribals.

“Increasingly, the decision to allot land is based on the Forest Department, which is actually the opposition party in the decisions. If the applicant doesn’t provide any document that carries the Forest Department’s opinion, it is summarily rejected by these committees,” said Fr Xavier.

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