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The Union Government is committed to formulate a comprehensive central legislation to correct the historical injustice done to forest dwelling Schedule Tribes by conferring the legal rights on land and other traditional forest rights on them This was stated by the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Shri P.R. Kyndiah in the Rajya Sabha, today.
In a written answer to Shri B.K. Hariprasad, the Minister explained that his Ministry has prepared a draft “The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forests Rights) Bill, 2005”, to provide a legislative frame for recognition of the aforementioned rights, in consultation, with the concerned Ministries, including the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The proposed Bill is still a tentative draft Bill and needs to be finalized as per the established procedure taking views and comments received from various stakeholders into consideration.
Mr. Kyndiah said the Bill was posted on the website of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to seek comments/suggestions from the members of the public, the social activitist, academicians, anthropologists and the experts working for the cause of environmental protection and welfare of tribal people and other stakeholders. The Ministry has received comments/suggestions from a large number of individuals/organizations, either supporting the Bill or opposing the same on various grounds, and the same will be taken into consideration while finalizing the draft.
As per the State Forest Report 2003, about 63 per cent of dense forest cover of the country lies in 187 tribal districts.
AVC/NSR
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