High voltage drama continuing for over a year ended finally with the Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) outrightly rejecting the State Government’s entire move to amend the CNT-SPT Acts.
At the end of the TAC meeting on Thursday, the Government announced calling back the entire draft of the amendment Bills approved by the Cabinet in May, 2016.
As soon as the meeting started in the leadership of Chief Minister Raghubar Das even BJP members in the TAC vociferously objected to tweak the Sections- 49 and 71(A) of the CNT Act as the Government had intended. Highly placed sources said that the CM asked them as to how the land can be acquired for developmental projects in the State if we don’t change the laws.
“This prompted some of the members to summon the Advocate General and ask for his opinion whether the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 can be used for such purposes. This postponed the meeting for a while and resumed again when the AG arrived there to attend it,” said a TAC member.
It was learnt that newly appointed Advocate General Ajit Kumar expressed his agreement in the favour of using the Act for acquiring lands for necessary activities. “Since the land Acquisition Act, 2013 has been placed into the Concurrent list of the Constitution, the State Government can make minor changes in this. It has been suggested that amendments suiting to the State and its conditions such as reducing timeframe for compensation etc can be made in the Act. The AG in association with the Revenue and land Reforms Department would study the Act and present a report in the TAC meeting,” said TAC member Shiv Shankar Oraon.
later, Rural Development Minister Neelkant Singh Munda confirmed this and said that the no amendment would take place in the Section-49 of the CNT Act, 1908. “The TAC has suggested that no amendment be done in the CNT-SPT Acts. Instead, the land Acquisition Act, 2013 should be simplified. The Cabinet would quash the amendment Bills it had passed,” said Munda.
The changes were meant to allow tribal lands to be taken for infrastructure and developmental projects such as rail, road, transmission lines, communication lines, schools, aganwadis etc besides, mining and industry.
However, amendment proposed in the Section-71(A), making provision for compensation against tribal land transfer has been put on hold and would be discussed during the next Budget Session of the Assembly. The Government had last month amid intense opposition by the TAC decided to roll back the amendments proposed in Section-21 of the CNT Act and Section-13 of the SPT Act while going ahead with the proposals about Sections 49 and 71(A) of the CNT Act.
This apart, the TAC constituted two separate committees, one to study as to why population of tribals in the State is continuously coming down while the other is to evaluate restriction on a tribal from purchasing another tribal land beyond the revenue thana jurisdiction.
“The first committee comprises Minister Neelkant Singh Munda along with Shiv Shankar Oraon, Gangotri Kujur and Tala Marandi. Welfare Minister louis Marandi, Ram Kumar Pahan and Ratan Tirkey are in the second committee. Both these committees would hold meetings all over the State, invite opinions from the people and study the laws before submitting its recommendations in four months’ time,” said a senior official.