TURA:
Having witnessed the ‘success’ of the 6th Schedule in providing protection to tribal-dominated areas of the North East while their own tribal region faces widespread loss of precious land taken away for mega projects by governments and private companies, a high level delegation from Chhattisgarh had undertaken a two-day tour of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council region to understand the policy, laws and systems in place that has so far helped to avoid what is already happening in other states.
Chhattisgarh, which falls under the 5th Schedule, is one of the largest tribal-dominated states in the country and yet faces one of the largest loss of tribal land taken over by multinational corporations with government backing for extraction of minerals leading to the displacement of thousands of Adivasi tribals from their ancestral lands.
A delegation of the Sarba Adivasi Samaj from Chhattisgarh led by former union minister Arvind Neetam and including the joint Secretary of the Chhattisgarh government’s Commission for Scheduled Tribes and Schedule Castes visited the GHADC headquarters and council village courts during their two-day visit to the region which they wrapped up on Saturday.
“We came here to study the constitutional provisions of the 6th Schedule in the North East since we fall under the 5th schedule. Sometimes we feel that you are most protected geographically, culturally, economically and even politically. In spite of that, you have got the added protection of the 6th schedule and this is the beauty of the North East,” said Arvind Neetam during his meeting with the GHADC members led by Chairperson of the High Powered Committee Rakesh A Sangma.
He said that although the Constitution states that the governor has maximum power, yet it also states in a single line that he can act only on the advice of the council of ministers.
“We tribals feel this is contradictory in the Constitution which is why we are facing a lot of problems and these are increasing by the day,” a worried Neetam said.
The biggest challenges to the tribal status and dominance arose after the Indian government opened up the economy with the liberalisation policy from 1991.
“The effect of the liberalisation policy is that today there is a clash between the policy and the laws enacted by Parliament and the state legislatures. Before 1991 there was no such problem,” Neetam said.
He said that this was the reason his tribal state decided to visit Meghalaya to study the 6th Schedule- its powers and impact– and if found positive would move for its implementation in mainland India where tribal lands exist.
He indicated that the 6th Schedule was more powerful than the Panchayati Raj laws when it came to protection of tribal lands.