Dear all,
Many of you may be familiar with areas that are covered by the Fifth
Schedule of the Indian Constitution. This Schedule contains special
provisions for the administration of specific areas where ethnic communities
(loosely termed tribals) reside. (To access a copy of the Constitution of
India please click on: <http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf>
http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf - Contents of the Fifth
Schedule are on pages 287-290). Nine States - Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa
and Rajasthan have settlements, blocks or entire districts covered by the
Fifth Schedule. (For a complete list of all settlements covered by the Fifth
Schedule in these states, please access the Annual Report of the Union
Ministry for Tribal Affairs at: http://tribal.nic.in/ar_0708e.pdf - pages
147-175)
Article 244 (1) of the Constitution requires the Governor of every State
that has areas covered by the Fifth Schedule to submit an annual report to
the President of India. The reporting must focus on the administration and
development of these areas. There have been misgivings that this mechanism
is not functional.
We launched an exercise to check whether the reporting mechanism was being
adhered to. An application was filed with the Union Ministry for Tribal
Affairs. The queries raised and the responses received are tabulated below:
RTI Query
Dispatched on 25th November 2008
Response
Reply dated 5th January 2009 received free of cost on 13th January 2009
1.
The date and month of receipt of reports specified under clause 3 of Part A
of the Fifth Schedule [read with Article 244(1)] of the Constitution of
India from the States of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan during
the period 1990-2008.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs was created in October 1999. However details
of the Governor's Reports received after the creation of the Ministry (since
Tenth Five Year Plan onwards) for the years are indicated against each are
given below :-
Name of the State
Andhra Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Gujarat
Himachal Pradesh
Jharkhand Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Orissa
Rajasthan
Report for the period of
2006-06, 2006-07
2002-03 to 2006-07
2003-04 to 2006-07
2001-02 to 2004-05 and
2006-07
2005-06
2000-01 to 2002-03 and
2004-05 to 2006-07
2000-01, 2002-03 and
2003-04
2001-02 to 2004-05
2003-04 to 2006-07
The Governor of each State having Scheduled Areas therein i.e., the States
of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan submit the Governor's
Report on Administration of Scheduled Areas of the State annually or
whenever so required by the President to the President Secretariat.
2.
Details of action taken by your Ministry in respect of any State that has
not submitted its annual report as per the Fifth Schedule of the
Constitution of India during the period 1990-2008.
The State Government who do not submit [sic] the Report are reminded for
submission of Governor's Reports from time to time.
3.
The manner in which citizens can access copies of the aforementioned reports
from your Ministry regardless of the Right to Information Act.
The Governor's Report may not be given to citizens unless seen by the
Hon'ble President or permitted by the President's Secretariat. The
Governor's Report is prepared by the concerned State Government. The
concerned State Government may therefore be approached for obtaining the
copy of the requisite Governor's Report.
4.
The amount of additional fees required to be paid under the RTI Act for
accessing a copy each of all reports submitted by all aforementioned States
for the aforementioned period.
In view of the reply to para (iii) above, the question does not arise.
Subsequently, a second RTI application was filed. A request was sent to
Central Public Information Officer, Rashtrapati Bhavan on 19th March 2009
seeking the following information:
1) "A copy of each report submitted to the Hon'ble President of India
under clause 3 of Part A of the Fifth Schedule [read with Article 244(1)] of
the Constitution of India by the respective Governors of the following
States of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan for the period-
2002-2009.
2) A copy of all written communication dispatched to the Governors of
the aforementioned States regards the contents of the reports, submitted
under clause 3 of Part A of the Fifth Schedule [read with Article 244(1)] of
the Constitution of India, for the aforementioned period."
The President's Secretariat transferred the application to the respective
States and advised us to approach them directly. The Tribal Development
Departments of the states listed below contacted the team on their own
seeking additional fees for disclosure of the reports. We are happy to
report that we have received reports filed under Article 24491) from six
states. We are following up with Chhattisgarh that has also sent us a fee
intimation letter. Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have not yet responded. For
strategic reasons we have not contested the action of the PIO from the
President's Secretariat. In principle he had a duty to make a decision
regadrs disclosure as the original copy of the reports are held by/in the
custody of the President's Secretariat which is a public authority.
State
Years for which reports are available with CHRI
Andhra Pradesh
2006-2007, 2005-2006, 2004-2005
2003-2004, 2002-2003, 2001-2002
Gujarat
2006-2007, 2005-2006, 2004-2005
2003-2004, 2002-2003
Himachal Pradesh
2007-2008, 2006-2007, 2005-2006
2004-2005, 2003-2004, 2002-2003
Maharashtra
2003-2004, 2002-2003, 2001-2002
Orissa
2006-2007, 2005-2006, 2004-2005
2003-2004, 2002-2003
Rajasthan
2007-2008, 2006-2007, 2005-2006
2004-2005, 2003-2004, 2002-2003
These reports are in English and contain a wealth of administrative and
development-related information about the Fifth Schedule areas and the
Tribal Advisory Councils wherever they have been constituted. We have only
hard copies of these voluminous reports and cannot afford the cost of
scanning them all to make them available publicly. If anybody is interested
in acquiring copies of these reports, we will be happy to send them
photocopies at actual cost + actual postage/courier charges. If anybody is
interested in scanning these reports and uploading them on one's own website
at one's own cost, we will be happy to provide a copy of the reports free of
cost. However we would like to have the hard copies back after the scanning
is completed. Please contact me at this email id or my colleague Michelle at
[email protected] Our telephone numbers are given below.
The Ministry also sent us some guidelines on the contents of these reports
and some related correspondence. We have attached the scanned document for
your reference. For those of you who receive this email through discussion
groups or listservs please access the attachments on our website at:
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Thanks
Venkatesh Nayak
Programme Coordinator
Access to Information Programme
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
B-117, I Floor, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi- 110 017
tel: 91-11- 2686 4678/ 2685 0523
fax: 91-11- 2686 4688
website: www.humanrightsinitiative.org
alternate email: <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected]
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