The Congress' allegation that the Centre is trying to snatch tribals' rights through the new forest conservation rules is a "futile attempt" to divert attention from the fact that the NDA's presidential candidate is a tribal woman, Union Minister Arjun Munda said on Sunday.
The Union tribal affairs minister's remarks came hours after the Congress accused the Narendra Modi government of abdicating its responsibility towards protecting tribal rights and diluting the forest conservation rules for the "ease of snatching forest land".
The environment ministry notified the Forest Conservation Rules, 2022 under the Forest Conservation Act on June 28 to replace the earlier rules, notified in 2003.
"It's a matter of great misfortune that in last 75 years the Congress could never thought of having a tribal person as the Constitutional Head of this country, and now when the present government under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi has nominated a lady from tribal community as the Presidential Candidate from NDA, the Congress is trying to mislead the nation by making frivolous and baseless allegations (sic)," Munda tweeted.
He said the Tribal Affairs Ministry is fully committed to uplifting tribal communities and at no point, the provisions of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) have been diluted.
Munda said states are responsible for granting compensation under the FRA and his ministry regularly reviews the implementation of the Act with them at the level of chief secretaries.
"Hence, the allegation that the present government is trying to snatch the rights from the tribals holds no ground and is just a futile attempt to divert the attention from the fact that NDA's presidential candidate is a tribal lady," he said.
Earlier in the day, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav also rebutted the Congress allegations and said the new forest conservation rules "do not dilute or infringe on" the provisions of the FRA, assuaging concerns that the new regulations allow cutting of forests without the consent of forest dwellers.
Yadav said the new rules have been promulgated to streamline the approval process, introduce the concept of collective decision-making and address the dynamic changes in the ecological values of trees and forests.
The new rules will allow parallel processing of the proposals and eliminate redundant processes, he said.
"The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 have been promulgated solely to implement the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980... No rule or provisions of any Act are being diluted. The process has been streamlined for reducing the timelines for arrival at the final decision," read a note posted by Yadav on Twitter.
The Congress alleged that the new forest conservation rules will disempower crores of "Adivasis" and others living in forest areas.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP-led government of diluting the new forest conservation rules for the "ease of snatching forest land" and said his party stands strongly with the "Adivasi brothers and sisters".
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the rules issued recently allow forest rights to be settled after the final approval for forest clearances has been granted by the Centre.
This has been done in the name of "ease of doing business" for a chosen few, he alleged in a statement.
He said the new rules were promulgated without any consultation and discussion with the stakeholders, including the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and will be challenged in the forthcoming session of Parliament.
(with inputs from PTI)
