Aravallis SC Committee Draws Flak For Calling For Online Submissions From Villagers And Farmers
New Delhi: The Supreme Court-constituted High Power Committee on Tuesday (July 21) invited inputs from the public and stakeholders regarding matters pertaining to the Aravalli hill range in northwest India. However, activists, environmentalists and tribal collectives working in the area have raised concerns about the method of public consultation.
Committee calls for online submissions
That’s because as per the HPC, submissions from all stakeholders – along with documentary evidence or other verifiable material – should be sent via email (mshpcaravalli@gmail.com), or filled in via this Google form. The HPC has also listed numerous stakeholders who should send their representations, suggestions and inputs:
“Therefore, the HPC has invited representations, suggestions and inputs from a wide range of stakeholders from the States of NCT of Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat or any other such State(s); environmentalists; conservationists; not for profit organisations; mining lease holders; project proponents; villagers; farmers; mine workers and local communities, whose livelihoods and wellbeing may be intrinsically linked to the ecosystem and biodiversity of the region; and interested persons/entities who may be affected by, or have a legitimate interest in the issues under consideration.”
Stakeholders have time till August 11 to file their submissions online. The Committee is expected to use these inputs, as well as those from experts and organisations, to recommend a new definition for the Aravallis, among other things.
But online doesn’t work, activists have said.
Why online doesn’t work
That’s because the email and google form-based outreach mechanism excludes rural communities most directly impacted by decisions on the Aravallis, because these communities comprise people who are not literate and technology-savvy, they said in a statement.
“The online submission process announced by the High-Powered Committee is not designed for the rural people,” Kusum Rawat, Youth Bhil Adivasi leader from Rajasthan and member of the pan India Adivasi Samanvay Manch Bharat said.
“A villager in the Aravalli belt cannot navigate a complex email address or google form, let alone ensure it reaches the right inbox without a typographical error. Also, how will even the knowledge of this invitation reach the villages in the first place?”
If the Committee is serious about hearing grassroot voices, it must first ensure that public notices in the local languages of the 64 Aravalli districts across five states are physically pasted in the panchayat bhawans, community halls, government schools and anganwadis, she said. She also added that the information should be given via radio and the e-mitr network so that it reaches community members, and they have some way of placing their concerns on record.
‘Too little time’
Moreover, the 21-day window for submission by stakeholders is too little time, activists have said.
“Twenty-one days is an entirely inadequate window to hear from the diverse communities living deep within the Aravalli belt,” Lokesh Bhiwani, a Haryana-based environmentalist and founder of Stand With Nature said in a statement.
“Getting these communities to participate in any meaningful way will be a manual, time-intensive process – there are no shortcuts, and decent coverage of voices within this timeline is simply not possible.”
He added that the HPC must also request the Supreme Court to extend the deadline for submitting its final report beyond August 31. This extension, he said, would allow the Committee to move beyond email submissions and collect richer, more authentic on-the-ground data from the people who have lived in and around these hills for generations.
“Without that, the report of the committee will lack credibility like the previous committee,” he said.
The previous committee contained only officials from departments under the Union government, as The Wire has reported previously. The joint secretary of the Union environment ministry was the convenor of this committee; other members included the secretary of the same ministry, the secretaries of all four states which the Aravalli Range spans, and one representative each from the Geological Survey of India (which comes under the Ministry of Mines), and the Central Empowered Committee and the Forest Survey of India (FSI) – both of which come under the Union environment ministry.
This committee had recommended a new definition for the Aravallis that activists had said would open up the hill range to numerous destructive activities including mining.
Following widespread protests about this, the Supreme Court on December 29 had directed that a new committee be formed to study and survey the Aravalli hill range across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. It had also stayed its own order that accepted the new definition for the Aravallis proposed by the earlier committee.
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