Public Hearing  on Poor implementation of Forest Rights Act and atrocities on forest people by Forest Department  Sahkarita Bhavan, Lucknow  2nd April 2011

National Forum of Forest People and Forest workers (NFFPFW), an alliance of various people’s  movements and organisations struggling for the rights of forest dwellers for nearly a decade now  all across the country.

we are all aware of the problems with the implementation of the Forest Rights Act all across the  country. In UP, we have been engaged in implementation of the Act but have faced problems  not only from the bureaucracy but also from the feudal forces in the society. To bring out some  of these issues NFFPFW are organizing a Citizen’s Tribunal on 2nd April 2011 in Lucknow, UP on the  atrocities inflicted on forest people, tribal, dalits and other poor classes in the past decades. The  public hearing will also look into matter of implementation of Forest Rights Act in UP.

Over the past few decades Forest Department has lodged thousands of illegal cases u/s of  Indian  Forest  Act  1927  on  forest  people  and  the  activists    implicating  in  many  offenses  like  poaching, encroachment, clear felling of trees etc. The cases have  not only been lodged u/s of  above mentioned Act but also u/s of Wild Life Protection Act, IPC, 7 criminal Act and even NSA  across the State. In the light of Forest Rights Act now such cases should be withdrawn by the  State  Government  in  order  to  mitigate  the  “  historical  injustice”  inflicted  on  forest  people  as  mentioned in the preamble of the Act. The State Government has issued orders to withdraw  some  petty  offenses  few  months  ago  after  a  massive  protest    by  forest  dwellers  in  District  Sonbhadra. But instead of withdrawing the cases, the entire exercise has been left to Forest  Department  who  through  the  Lok  adalats  are  forcing  the  tribal  and  other  forest  dwellers  to  confess the offense and pay the money to dispose  off the cases. The FD is making criminal  history of the tribal who now according to the FRA should be owners of the forest.

Along with these  issues  there  are  many other  issues  relating to  implementation  of  the  Forest  Rights Act that needs to be looked into legally. Hence it is very important that such issues comes  in limelight through an independent Tribunal that will also alert the State Government to look into  these matters seriously.

Jury members who have confirmed till now are : Mannu Lal Markam ( Retd. Judge, Jabal HC),  Ad Ravi Kiran Jain ( HC, Allahabad), Smita Gupta(member drafting committee of Forest rights  Act),  Manimala  (  Director,  Gandhi  Smriti  Darshan,  New  Delhi)  and  Praful  Bidwai  (  Senior  Journalist)

We request you to join in this public hearing  Munnilal( Convenor), Ashok chowdhury ( Founder and ex convenor), Roma ( FRA campaign coordinator, UP & Uttarakhand), Shanta Bhattcharjee, Rajnish and Ramchander Rana( Member,  state level monitoring committee) Alok - 09415045873] email : alok.1857@gmail.com

सुरेन्द्र अग्निहोत्री
मो0 9415508695
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