This letter was written to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha on the 26th of February.

To:

Smt. Meira Kumar

Hon’ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha, New Delhi

*Sub: The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill – request that the same may be sent to
a Standing Committee as it has been extensively modified after being tabled
in Parliament, depriving the public and in particular affected communities
of any possibility of comment*

Dear Madam,

We are a national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers’ organisations
from ten States. We write to bring to your notice that the government is
seeking to ensure the swift passage of the Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill and
we understand that it may attempt to do so in the next day or two. In this
context we wish to draw the following to your attention:

The government reportedly intends to move more than 150 amendments to
   the original Bill.

   As per the amendments tabled in Parliament in December, these include
   many areas which were never addressed by either the Standing Committee’s
   report or the original Bill.

   In particular, *we are dismayed to find that the amendments contain
   several provisions that adversely affect the rights of Scheduled Tribes and
   forest dwellers, and in particular permit the destruction of community
   forests on the payment of arbitrary cash compensation as well as
   undermining the powers of local bodies under the Forest Rights Act and the
   PESA Act.* Many of these provisions were not in the original Bill and
   were certainly not recommended by the Standing Committee. Further, they
   also violate international law.

In light of the fact that the *tribals and forest dwellers of this country
have been the worst-hit victims of decades of illegal, brutal and inhuman
displacement at the hands of the state*, *basic respect for their
democratic rights demands that this Bill be referred to a parliamentary
committee for a full review.* *The government cannot be permitted to use
its majority to simply ram through legislations while making a mockery of
parliamentary procedures and public consultation.* This would be a
tremendous disservice to the people of this country and in particular an
injustice to those who have already suffered as a result of the callousness
of the state.

We trust you will not permit this government to bypass democracy in order
to perpetrate one more historical injustice against the tribals and forest
dwellers of this country.

Sincerely,

(On behalf of the Convening Collective)

First Published in CGNET