Govt should revise tribal resettlement plan: World Bank

HYDERABAD: The World Bank has asked the state government to revise the controversial Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) meant to rehabilitate people displaced from forests under the Community Forest Management (CFM) project.
The APNGO Committee on Participatory Forest Management has opposed the CFM project on grounds that it violates the World Bank’s policy on displacement and involuntary resettlement of tribals.The committee had pointed out forcible eviction of tribals under the Joint Forest Management project, the predecessor of CFM, and the lack of a proper rehabilitation package.
Subsequently, the government issued the RAP. The committee, in a letter to the World Bank country director on August 14, complained that the RAP did not address the basic issues raised by them including the violation of the bank’s norms on loss of livelihood due to evictions. In his reply to the letter, country director Michael F Carter on Sept. 30 said that, “the government of Andhra Pradesh would revise the RAP, which would be posted on the Bank’s website to replace the current RAP.�
Carter adds that “according to the project documents, the review and revision would take place during the first year of the project implementation.
This requires government of Andhra Pradesh to carry extensive consultations with the representatives of various stake-holders.�