Disagreement over forestry mission widen rift between Ramesh and top official

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-14/india/29542857_1_forest-rights-act-forest-bureaucracy-environment-ministry

Nitin Sethi, May 14, 2011, 05.54am IST

NEW DELHI: Differences over the Green India Mission between Jairam Ramesh and his Director-General of Forests have widened the rift between the forest bureaucracy and the Union environment and forests minister.
At the heart of the argument between the two was the control over the flow of an estimated Rs 46,000 crore over the next 10 years meant to afforest five million hectares as part of the mission planned under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

The minister had proposed an autonomous society outside the environment ministry guiding and controlling the flow of funds to the gram sabhas headed by him. Sources in the ministry said the DG Forests -- the highest officer in the forest service -- preferred to keep the entire mechanism in the existing forest bureaucracy's grip, within the confines of the environment ministry completely.

The DG Forests has gone on a two-week leave while the lower-level forest bureaucracy in the ministry has now been tasked by the minister to prepare the cabinet note for the Green India mission which has got the in-principle approval of the Prime Minister and his climate change council.

The minister and the forest bureaucracy have been at loggerheads since he attempted to bring in reforms and align the forest regulations to the Forest Rights Act.

Sources told TOI that disquiet had recently gripped the forest service officials in the ministry over his attempt to free the lucrative bamboo trade from the grip of the state forest departments and hand over rights to the gram sabhas as necessitated by the new Forest Rights Act. It had taken a huge amount of work behind the doors to get this done even in one village in Maharashtra that Ramesh and Maharashtra chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan were to visit. Even there a compromise was struck that continued to provide the forest department with some control over the bamboo trade.

The minister has also expressed support for the Centre's move to provide minimum support prices for forest produce to tribals and other forest-dependent people.

The Forest Rights Act -- a pro-tribal landmark legislation of UPA -- requires greater control of the forestry regime being handed over to people. This has been opposed by foresters across the country who still stand by the powers vested since colonial times through the 1927 Indian Forest Act.

The minister has not ventured to bring the colonial Act in line with the new legislation but even his little steps have not gone down well with the forest service.

Odisha-based civic group Water Initiatives Odisha hails Supreme Court Judgment on restoration of common lands

Report by Orissa Diary correspondent; 
Bhubaneswar: 
Odisha-based civic group Water Initiatives Odisha hails Supreme Court Judgment on restoration of common lands.

Ranjan Panda, Convener, WIO just informed that the Honorable Supreme Court of India, in a historic judgment dated January 28, 2011 have directed all the State Governments in the country that they should prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorized occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/ Poramboke/ Shamlat land and these must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village.   The Honorable Supreme Court has also directed that for this purpose the Chief Secretaries of all State Governments/Union Territories to do the needful, taking the help of other senior officers of the Governments and submit a compliance report by May 3, 2011.

Panda said, “as three months passed from the date of the judgment and only five days remain for the government to report to the honorable Apex Court, on 28th April, in a letter to the Principal Secretary-Water Resources of Govt. of Odisha, we have written urging upon the state government to see to the issues raised by this judgment and take appropriate action to free all water bodies of the state from all sorts of encroachments and ensure their protection and revival from the destructive forces including pollution from industries and urbanization”.

“Based on our experience working on revival of water harvesting structures and systems, we see a lot of hope in this historic judgment of the honorable apex court and hence have urged upon the state govt. to accelerate the efforts in the state to give the dying wisdom of our state a new lease of life and formulate a detailed strategy to revive the traditional water bodies so that they can once again prove to be vital socio-economic and ecological assets for the state and its people”, said Panda.  According to him, “giving back the evicted common water bodies their ‘common’ status would also mean giving back the poor, landless and other backward and excluded communities their right of the common resources; as has been rightly emphasized by the honorable Supreme Court”.

Panda also informed that Water Initiatives Odisha has suggested the state government to take a few concrete steps like the following:

1.Make an assessment of the state of all common water bodies and their use by different sections of people;
2. Make an assessment of the state of pollution and encroachment level of these bodies;
3. Initiate an immediate drive to free these structures from eviction in line with the above cited judgment of the honorable Supreme Court;
4. Prepare an action plan for revival and strengthening of all these structures and systems, taking into confidence and consideration, all sections of the society including farmers, fishing communities, scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, other backward classes, landless labourers, civil society, technical institutions, academia, media and other concerned; and
5. Form a state level monitoring committee with involvement of all the above sections for regular monitoring of this drive.

Source: http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=26330