New Delhi:
In an unprecedented move, the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Dr. B.D. Sharma, has written to the Attorney-General to highlight in Parliament and advise the Government on serious breaches of constitutional safeguards relating to the tribal community and other deprived sections. He said: “I had the privilege of submitting two reports so far to the President under Article 338 of the Constitution concerning the working of the constitutional safeguards for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These reports are required to be placed before Parliament which has also been done. However, they have not come up for discussion so far”. “May I, therefore, formally request you on behalf of the deprived section of the community in general and the tribal people in particular that you may bring to the notice of the Government and also Parliament the serious breaches of the constitutional safeguards and advise them accordingly so as to ensure that the voice of the tribal people is heard and the authorities concerned are obliged to take such action as may be necessary to remove these distortions …. ” The situation in the tribal areas is rather grim. It is largely due to the fact that there is inadequate appreciation of the tribal situation. The exotic legal system is not in consonance with the tribal tradition and needs of the tribal economy. In utter disregard of its responsibility for providing protection to the tribal people whose protection is their trust and who are engaged in the grim battle of their survival and are defending their right to life. Article 88 of the Constitution says: “Every Minister and the Attorney-General of India shall have the right to speak in and otherwise to take part in the proceedings of either House, any joint sittings of the Houses and any Committee of Parliament. (Hindu, Jan.4)
