State distorting laws protecting tribals, says Deo

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, April 8, 2013: In an action that is likely to widen the existing rift between Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Union tribal affairs minister V.

Kishore Chandra Deo, the latter has written to the governors of states with Schedule-V areas, accusing the state government was trying to brazenly distort the constitutional safeguards against the interests of tribals.

The union minister wrote a letter to governors of Odisha, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradessh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Rajasthan including Andhra Pradesh on April 4 urging them to use the special powers vested with them in safeguarding the interests of tribals living in Schedule V areas where left wing extremism have been fuelled due to continuous oppression.

 In a five page letter Deo said that the main threat to schedule V areas is the mining and it had shaken the confidence and faith of the people in the region. In many cases powerful lobbies are trying to encourage mining themselves in flagrant violation of constitutional provisions in utter contempt of land transfer regulations which have been enacted by various state governments and without any regard to other prevailing laws of the land, he said.

It may be worth mentioning here that Kishore Chandra Deo had earlier requested the state governor, ESL Narasimhan to cancel the licenses to mine bauxite ore in Vizag Agency and also the MoUs signed by the state government with private companies on the supply of mined ore, invoking special powers vested with the governors.

With no response from the state governor, Deo later sent directives to the state government by invoking special powers of the union government to cancel the licenses and also the MoUs signed with the private entities.

The state government instead of following the directives of Deo, sent a letter to the union tribal affairs ministry to reconsider them and also refuted the objections raised by him over cancellation of bauxite mining licenses to APMDC. State government also came in support of the governor.    

“It is most shocking and revolting that certain state governments for instance, the state government of Andhra Pradesh where higher echelons of powers are themselves trying to brazenly distort not only the laws but constitutional safeguards  against the interests of tribals and other dwellers in forest areas,” Deo said in the letter to the governors.

The state government said governor can cancel the licenses only by giving a reasonable opportunity of hearing under Mines and Minerals Act of 1957 and in such course it requires to follow a procedure under six various circumstances.

But Deo in his latest letter to the governors said, “The governor may repeal or amend any Act of parliament or of the legislature of the state or any existing law which is for the time being applicable to the Area in question, when good governance or peace is disturbed due to issues related either with land or money lending,” he said.

In a strongly worded letter to the mines minister Dhinsh Patel earlier on Feb 13, Deo also said that the state governor chose to ‘abdicate’ his authority under the provisions of Article 244 (1) of the constitution and the state government was ‘touting’ about the prior permission accorded by the mines ministry hence urged his intervention.