The Planning Commission wants to douse this 'spreading bushfire of rural discontent' -Neha Sakhuja and Savvy Soumya Mishra Land alienation, poverty amongst scheduled tribes and dalits and lack of access to basic forest resources have contributed to the growth of naxalism, says the Planning Commission. Its report, Development challenges in extremist affected areas, indicts Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. The report also critiques SEZs and the complete failure of instruments like the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. In 2006, the Planning Commission set up an expert group headed by D Bandopadhyay, a retired IAS officer experienced in dealing with naxalites in West Bengal in the 1970s, to look into the phenomenon of naxalism. Its terms of reference included "identification of processes and causes contributing to continued tensions and alienation in the areas of unrest and discontent, such as widespread displacement, forest issues, insecured tenancies and other forms of exploitation like usury, land alienation, etc". It also included "special measures to be taken for strengthening the implementation of PESA". The committee comprised Prakash Singh, former UP DGP; Ajit Doval, former director of the Intelligence Bureau; B D Sharma, retired bureaucrat and activist; Sukhdeo Thorat, UGC chairperson and K Balagopal, human rights lawyer. "This report is a first of its kind in the last 22 years by the Centre. We have tried an open approach rather than a security-centric one," informs a senior member of the expert group. Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal-states reeling under rural poverty, with a major proportion of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST)- are precisely the spaces that form the hotbed of the naxal movement. The report stresses the need "to come out with a consensus report which...could give the authorities, the civil society and public at large an analysis of the situation and a package of programmes to tackle the issue of rural violence which has been continuing in the rural areas of India for nearly four decades". The report argues land-related factors play an important role in the growth of naxalism, as seen in the 'land to the tiller' policy of the naxalites. It does say, however, that naxalites have done little to redistribute private land among the poor. Pointing out that thousands of acres of land remain fallow, the expert group has asked the government to devise legal means to ensure that the landless get land. In this context, they recommend laws like Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996; the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005; and The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 be implemented in full earnest in order to ensure people their land and rights. The group has also called for a strict monitoring and co-ordination of various commissions formed as custodian to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes; it urges consultation among these bodies and joint initiatives for concerted and compulsory action, mandatory for chief ministers to follow. To ensure financial stability, the expert group recommends all debt liabilities of the weaker sections be liquidated "where the debtor has paid an amount equivalent to the original principal and where intended benefit for which the loan was taken has not accrued to the borrowers". The report states "Public purpose" in the Land Acquisition Act should be limited to national security and public welfare and should not be stretched to acquisition for companies, cooperatives and registered societies. The report targets amendments contained in the Land Acquisition (Amendment Bill) 2007: "These proposals need to be further revised to minimize displacement and secure the rights of affected displaced persons". Corroborating the report, Nihar Nayak, research fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, says "An essential measure long overdue is a time bound possession survey of all land under cultivation of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. This should lead to distribution of grant of title to those who do not have title, identification of land illegally alienated and restoration of alienated land so identified." Moreover, the expert group has recommended, the power granted by PESA to gram sabhas to prevent alienation of land should be extended suitably to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, beyond the Scheduled areas, as recommended by various commissions and as is prevalent in parts in some states (Rajasthan/MP) Critics feel the report is loosely titled; it does not define who is an 'extremist', or what classifies as 'extremism'. "Even though it has focused only on leftwing extremism (Maoism or naxalism) and development challenges, it has overlooked other conflict-affected regions with a similar problem, like the Northeast and J&K," says Animesh Roul, executive director, Society for Study of Peace and Conflict. Ajai Sahni, executive director, Institute for Conflict Management, Delhi, is harsher: "It is a cut and paste job of solutions proposed earlier. It does not look at the ground situation." But Bandopadhyay has a kinder take: "Naxalism has emerged as a result of deficit in planning; constant alienation has made people take up arms and it's time one understands the problem as not just a law and order problem but one that's foundations are socio economic." -Down to earth feature