With no reply yet from the Prime Minister to Environment Minister A Raja’s letter — seeking ‘‘guidance’’ on the future course of action following a stop-work order from the PMO which Raja felt was inconsistent with what the PM had asked for — the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has decided to go ahead and make a presentation of their draft bill at tomorrow’s workshop organised by the PMO.‘‘At the last meeting, the Prime Minister wanted copies of our draft distributed. So we hope the PMO will circulate copies among the participants tomorrow. We will anyway make a presentation,’’ Director General (Forests) S.C. Kala told The Indian Express.The Ministry of Tribal Affairs left the decision to PMO. ‘‘The workshop is being organised by the PMO. If PMO officials feel that the MoEF should make a presentation of their draft bill, we won’t have any objection,’’ said Meena Gupta, secretary, Tribal Affairs. Before taking charge yesterday, Gupta was a special secretary with the MoEF.For the record, the set of documents sent to individual participants by the PMO on Wednesday included the original draft made by the Tribal Affairs Ministry, the MoEF’s 2-page comment on that, and a detailed note prepared by wildlife expert Valmik Thapar. Forget copies, the circular didn’t even mention the 20-page MoEF draft bill.Meanwhile, with controversies raging over the future of our forests, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided not to attend tomorrow’s meeting. MoS Prithviraj Chauhan, who was also present at the previous meeting on September 30, along with the PM, will attend the day-long workshop.‘‘It would be wonderful if the Prime Minister could spend some time at the workshop. Chances of reaching at any kind of consensus is low, particularly in his absence. I hope everybody will be heard tomorrow without any censorship,’’ says Thapar. ‘‘It’s probably going to get far too dirty tomorrow for the PM’s Mr Clean image,’’ said another expert who reached New Delhi this afternoon to attend the workshop.The PMO keeps it simple: ‘‘There was never any formal announcement that the Prime Minister would attend the workshop. So where is the question of him staying away?’’ But Prime Minister’s deputy Chauhan will have a tough time presiding over 19 warring experts and the officials from the PMO, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the MoEF.Key points of conflict• Saving national parks and sanctuaries (4.4% of forest land) as inviolate zones• No discrimination between tribal and non-tribal forest dwellers• Quantifying the extent of forest land lost consequent to implementation of the original bill• Changing lifestyle of the so-called tribals and the evolving nature of traditional entitlement• Deciding on appropriate period of limitation and extent of land claims, and issue of the encroachers• Nature and limits of the rights, and extent of resource modification• Jurisdiction of authority identifying rights
