NEW DELHI, Feb 27(TOI): The Sonia Gandhi-led national advisory council (NAC) has won decisive victories in keeping at bay the governments attempt to regulate right to information and ensuring the pro-tribal Forest Rights Act is made more effective for its intended beneficiaries.
On the national Food Security Act -- the third bone of contention between the government and NAC -- the Council at its meeting on Saturday held its ground and advocated a staggered rollout. It disagreed with the government to insist that procuring 65 million tonnes of food grains for a full rollout of the programme is not a difficult task.
NAC, seen as a policy interface with civil society, is an influential body providing policy and legislative inputs headed as it is by the Congress president.
Prevailing on RTI and forest rights are major achievements while guaranteeing 35 kg of food grains a month to families below poverty line and sections of urban poor is a key Sonia scheme, too.
On RTI, the government ceded ground on its bid to restrict an application to 250 words and a clause stating an inquiry would end if the applicant died. Now, it will say an application should preferably not exceed 500 words. It has also agreed that a query will not cease on an applicant's death.
The government is still insisting that an RTI application should be focused on one subject. But NAC has decided not to give up. Sonia Gandhi told Council members on Friday that this should be pursued with the government.
Department of Personnel and Training had earlier opposed NAC's suggestions Information activists who saw the proposed amendments as a bid to dilute the powerful act can rejoice after a protracted three-month battle.
The 250-word cap and the single subject rule are in particular seen to be limiting clauses. Abatement of an appeal in case of an applicant's death has also seen activists arguing that this provision could be misused to kill people asking uncomfortable questions as has been reported in some cases recently.
While NAC feels the Forest Rights Act is doing well, it wants to tweak it to reduce the scope of tribal beneficiaries being defeated by red tape. Thus required quorum for convening a gram sabha may be reduced from two-third to half to increase the frequency of meetings for speedy settlement of claims. And the tribal representation in the forest rights committee may go up from one-third to two-third to increase their clout under the Act.
The Centre may also issue guidelines to allow tribals to transport and sell minor forest produce with a guaranteed minimum support price although this may imply removing restrictions that stipulate that forest dwellers can take away only as much as an individual can carry.
Just like the DoPT on RTI, tribal affairs ministry had earlier opposed the suggestions of the NAC on Forest Rights Act.
The NAC and the tribal affairs ministry have narrowed differences on changes proposed in the landmark law giving settlement rights rights to tribals and other forest dwellers with sources saying that tribal affairs ministry accepted most of the councils suggestions.
On food security, the end to the government-NAC standoff might take some more time with the Sonia-led panel digging in its heels. It refused to accept the governments plea that covering 90% of the rural population and 50% of urban dwellers is not feasible in terms of food grain availability, storage and distribution.
Most recently, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council sought a middle ground by paring down the NAC proposals while enhancing the government's offerHowever, NAC members argue that the governments view is conservative and the council has released its version of the draft bill on its website for public comment.
An NAC working group will prepare a draft food security bill taking into account the public feedback. In the first phase NAC estimates a total public distribution system food requirement of 49.4 million tones based on lower rural and urban coverage and smaller off-take of 85%. This is to allow improvements in food procurement and distribution.
In contrast to government's view, the Council considers assumption of 90% (final) offtake at proposed prices (Rs 3 a kg) to be reasonable. Theexperience of Tamil Nadu (with a near universal PDS system) shows the off take tends to be much lower than 100% at even lower prices (Rs 1 per kg of rice) than under the National Food Security Act, the NAC's note says.
More local procurement and reducing exports of about 7-14 million tonnes of cereals a year and could augment food procurement, feels the NAC.
On the Forest Rights Act, the NAC working group, it is learnt, wants the condition for non-tribals to claim right on forest land to be possession of land. Presently, they are required to be in possession of the land (75 years) and also be dependent on it for livelihood.
However, there are doubts on the efficacy of reducing quorum strength. While the objective is to facilitate frequent meetings sources said setting quorum at half the gram sabha strength would disadvantage tribals where they were numerically weaker. It would be easier for non-tribals to ignore the tribals in convening the gram sabhas.
On allowing tribals the freedom to sell and transport minor forest produce it is feared may bring in motorised vehicles for ferrying of minor produce and make the system vulnerable to exploitation by contractors and non-tribals.