Joint Panel report okays all on Forest amendment Bill; 4 MPs dissent

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Joint committee on the draft Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 2023 on Thursday has accepted every single amendment proposed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change and recommended it entirely unchanged, as per its report tabled in Parliament on Thursday. Four Opposition party Members of Parliament- who were on the panel- Congress MPs Pradyut Bordoloi and Phulodevi Netam, Trinamool Congress’ Jawahar Sircar and DMK’s R Girirajan – have expressed their dissent in writing to provisions in the draft Bill.

Bordoloi has said in his dissent note that contrary to the new preamble proposed in the Act, the amendment’s sum and substance ‘emasculates’ the original FCA and ‘subverts’ its purpose. Netam has stated that while the constitution has entrusted the nation’s forest wealth to the government, the latter is misusing it through these amendments as forests do not appear to be the top priority in these.

Girirajan has said that the amendments are ‘inconsistent and ultra vires to the principal act’ and ‘severely compromise the constitutional mandate of the State’ to ‘safeguard forests’. He has also termed it an attempt to ‘infringe’ on federal rights of state governments.

Sircar has also called for rationalisation of most of the amendments from civic amenities across projects to specification of defence projects and ensuring consultation with state governments when the Centre issues guidelines. All dissenting panel members have also sought that the name of the principal Act stay unchanged – in English- as that is now well understood by people across languages.