The Union government has to ensure that flagship scheme saturation programmes such as the PM-JANMAN (for particularly vulnerable tribal groups, or PVTG) and DAJGUA (for Scheduled Tribe villages) “continue to serve our tribal communities effectively”, Minister of Tribal Affairs Jual Oram has said.
Chhattisgarh High Court upholds cancellation of forest rights of villagers in Hasdeo Arand forest where Adani runs coal mines
The Minister said that the government is studying a recent Supreme Court order that noted a conflict between the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), which came in a case where PVTG villagers in Madhya Pradesh’s Binega are trying to build PM-AWAS-sanctioned homes on forest land over which they already hold forest rights titles.
Prove that Forest Rights Act is responsible for ‘negative’ change to forest cover, Tribal Affairs Ministry tells Environment Ministry
On September 23, the court passed an order in the case explaining that even though the FRA (2006) provided for the government to undertake certain “non-forestry” activities for providing services and facilities, notwithstanding the FCA (1980) it noted that these prescribed activities did not explicitly include the construction of pucca housing. It asked the government to find a way forward where pucca dwellings on forest land do not come in conflict with the FCA.
