Capacity Building for Conflict Resolution: Summary | Indian Polity for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Capacity Building to Deal with Left Extremism

1. A long-term (10-year) and short-term (5-year) Programme of Action based on the ‘14-Point Strategy’ may be formulated by the Government
2. Within the spirit of the ‘14-Point Strategy’, negotiations with the extremist outfits should be an important mode of conflict resolution.
3. There is a strong case for ‘back to the basics’ in the matter of administrative monitoring and supervision. The system of periodic official inspections and review of organisational performances needs to be revitalised.
4. Formation of trained special task forces on the pattern of the Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh
5. Establishing and strengthening local level police stations, adequately staffed by local recruits.
6. For effective implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006, multidisciplinary Oversight Committees may be constituted to ensure that the implementation of this ameliorative legislation does not adversely affect the local ecosystems.
7. The nexus between illegal mining/forest contractors and transporters and extremists which provides the financial support for the extremist movement needs to be broken.
8. For implementing large infrastructure projects, particularly road networks agencies like the BRO in place of contractors may be considered as a temporary measure.

Land and the Agrarian Conflicts including Farmers’ Suicides

• Special Economic Zones

Administrative Arrangements for Conflict Resolution for SEZs
Some of the measures are –
State Governments should not normally acquire the bulk of the lands for the SEZs.

• The better approach would be to have a limited number of large SEZs preferably in backward areas so that they lead to infrastructure creation.
• It would be desirable that the proportion of land allowed to be used for ‘non-processing’ activities should be minimised.
• the SEZ law should also specify establishment of vocational training centres. Provision of water, sanitation and health facilities should precede the actual developmental activities in the vicinity of the villages
• It is necessary that industrial activities and SEZs are located in areas where they cause the least displacement and dislocation, and do not usurp productive agricultural lands. For the purpose, prepare comprehensive land use plans is needed

Summary of Recommendations on Water Related Issues

1. The Union Government needs to be more proactive and decisive in cases of inter-State river disputes and act with the promptness and sustained attention that such disputes demand.
2. Since Article 262 of the Constitution provides that neither the Supreme Court nor any other Court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of inter-State river disputes, it is necessary that the spirit behind this provision is fully appreciated.
3. River Basin Organisations (RBOs) should be set up for each inter- State river, as proposed by the Report of the National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development, 1999 by enacting a legislation to replace the River Boards Act, 1956.
4. The Chairmen of all the River Basin Organisations, as and when formed, should be made members of the National Water Resources Council.
5. The National Water Resources Council and RBOs should play a more positive role. The Council and its secretariat should be more proactive, suggest institutional and legislative reforms in detail, devise modalities for resolving inter-State water conflicts, and advise on procedures, administrative arrangements and regulation of use of resources by different beneficiaries keeping in view their optimum development and ensuring maximum benefits to the people.
6. In order to develop, conserve, utilise and manage water on the basis of a framework that incorporates long term perspectives, a national water law should be enacted.

Summary of Recommendations on Issues Related to Scheduled Castes

1. Government should adopt a multi-pronged administrative strategy to ensure that the Constitutional, legal and administrative provisions made to end discrimination against the Scheduled Castes are implemented in letter and spirit.
2. To ensure speedy disposal of discrimination cases pending in subordinate courts, an internal mechanism may be set up under the control of the High Court Administrative Judge to review such cases.
3. There is need to place a positive duty on public authorities for promotion of social and communal harmony and prevention of discrimination against the SCs and STs.
4. There is need for engaging independent agencies to carry out field surveys to identify cases of social discrimination.
5. The District Administration should organise independent surveys to identify ‘vulnerable areas’.
6. Enforcement agencies should be instructed in unambiguous terms that enforcement of the rights of the weaker sections should not be downplayed for fear of further disturbances or retribution.
7. The Administration should focus on the rehabilitation of the victims and provide all required support to them including counselling.
8. A statutory duty may be cast on all public authorities to promote equality and actively check social discrimination.
9. As far as possible the deployment of police personnel in police stations with significant proportion of SCs and STs should be in proportion to the population of such communities.
10. It would be desirable to introduce a system of incentives wherein efforts made by these officials in detecting and successfully prosecuting cases of discrimination/atrocities against the Scheduled Castes are suitably acknowledged.
11. The local governments – municipalities and panchayats – should be actively involved in various programmes concerned with effective enforcement of various social legislations.
12. The corporate sector and NGOs need to be involved in complementing the efforts of the government for the development of the Scheduled Castes. Such voluntary action should not only be directed towards economic and social empowerment of the SCs, but also towards enabling them to raise their voice against atrocities, discrimination and exploitation

Summary of Recommendations on Issues Related to Scheduled Tribes

1. While all States in the Fifth Schedule Area have enacted compliance legislations vis-à-vis PESA, their provisions have been diluted by giving the power of the Gram Sabha to other bodies. Subject matter laws and rules in respect of money lending, forest, mining and excise have not also been amended.
2. Awareness campaigns should be organised in order to make the tribal population aware of the provisions of PESA and the 73rd amendment to the Constitution so as to demand accountability in cases in which the final decisions are contrary to the decisions of the Gram Sabha or Panchayat.
3. There should be a complete overhaul and systematic re-organisation of existing land records with free access to information about land holdings.
4. There is need to harmonise the various legislations and government policies being implemented in tribal areas with the provisions of PESA. The laws that require harmonisation are the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, the Indian Forest Act, 1927, the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 among others.
5. Mining laws applicable to Scheduled Tribal Areas should be in conformity with the principles of the Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Constitution.
6. Government should select such police, revenue and forest officials who have the training and zeal to work in tribal areas and understand as well as empathise with the population they serve.
7. A national plan of action for comprehensive development which would serve as a road map for the welfare of the tribals should be prepared and implemented.

Summary of Recommendations on Religious Conflicts

1. Community policing should be encouraged.
2. District Peace Committees/Integration Councils should be made effective instruments of addressing issues likely to cause communal disharmony. The District Magistrate in consultation with the Superintendent of Police should constitute these committees. Further, Mohalla Committees should also be organised on the same lines.
3. A separate law to deal with communal violence is not required. The existing provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code need to be strengthened. This may be achieved by incorporating provisions for:

• Enhanced punishments for communal offences.
• Setting up of special courts for expeditious trial of cases related to communal violence.
• Giving powers of remand to Executive Magistrate in cases of communal offences.
• Prescription of norms of relief and rehabilitation.

Summary of Recommendations on Regional Disparities

• A composite criteria for identifying backward areas (with the Block as a unit) based on indicators of human development including poverty, literacy and infant mortality rates, along with indices of social and economic infrastructure, should be developed by the Planning Commission for the 12th Five Year Plan.
• Union and State Governments should adopt a formula for Block- wise devolution of funds targeted at more backward areas.
• Governance needs to be particularly strengthened in more backward areas within a State. The role of ‘special purpose vehicles’ such as backward area development boards and authorities in reducing intra- State disparities needs to be reviewed.
• A system of rewarding States (including developed States) achieving significant reduction in intra-State disparities should be introduced.

Summary of Recommendations on Conflicts in the North East Capacity Building in Administration

• Greater opportunities may be provided to officers serving in the region to serve outside the North East to gain greater exposure to diverse work situations.
• Incentives available for officers working in the North East should be increased.
• Regional training institutions for various branches of administration, including the technical services may be operated by the North Eastern Council.
• NEC may initiate discussions with the States to examine the legal implications and feasibility of regional cadres for senior positions in technical and specialised departments under the States.
• NEC and the Ministry of Home Affairs may, in collaboration with the States, draw up an agenda for administrative reforms for the region with its implementation being monitored systematically.

Capacity Building in Police

• The North Eastern Police Academy (NEPA) needs major upgradation of infrastructure and staff to cater to a larger number of officers at the induction level. NEPA may also be developed for imparting training to civil police officers from other regions in dealing with insurgency.
• Concrete steps are needed to introduce a scheme of deploying police personnel from the region to Central Police Organisations and to encourage deputation of police officers from outside the region to the North Eastern States.

Capacity Building in Local Governance Institutions

• To avoid complaints of less favourable treatment to ‘Scheduled Areas’ in certain respects, suitable amendment may be made in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to enable the Autonomous Councils to benefit from the recommendations of State Finance Commissions and the State Election Commissions provided respectively under Articles 243I and 243K of the Constitution of India.
• Ministry of Home Affairs may, in consultation with the concerned State governments and the Autonomous Councils, identify powers under the Sixth Schedule that Governors may exercise at their discretion without having to act on the ‘aid and advice’ of the Council of Ministers as envisaged in Article 163 (1) of the Constitution.
• Paragraph 14 of the Sixth Schedule may be suitably amended to enable the Union Government to appoint a common Commission for all autonomous districts for assessing their state of administration and making other recommendations envisaged in that paragraph.
• Government of Assam should review the existing arrangements of determining budgetary allocations and release of funds to the ‘original’ Autonomous Councils with a view, as far as practicable, to bringing them at par with the arrangements for the Bodoland Territorial Council.

Capacity Building in Regional Institutions
NEC & DONER

• The NEC Act, 1971 may be suitably amended to restore the original ‘conflict resolution provision’ requiring the Council to ‘discuss issues of mutual interest to two or more states in the region and to advise the Central Government thereon’.
• To enable the Council to assist effectively in the discharge of its responsibilities for reviewing the measures taken by the member- States for maintenance of security in the region, Ministry of Home Affairs should keep the Council Secretariat regularly within its ‘security coordination loop’.
• The Planning Commission needs to lay down a framework for preparation of integrated regional plans, with priorities and not as an assortment of schemes by the NEC.
• Planning Commission should ensure the association of the NEC in the State plan formulation exercise by suitably amending their guidelines.
• The responsibility of sanctioning funds from the ‘Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources’ (NLCPR) should be entrusted to the North Eastern Council (NEC). NEC should work out mechanisms for scrutinising proposals for funding from the ‘pool’ and their funding in coordination with the Ministries concerned.
• It is desirable that a 10-year perspective plan is prepared for the entire region encompassing areas like development of human resources and infrastructure.
• The Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) may be abolished and the responsibility for the development of the region, including the infrastructure sectors, and utilisation of the non-lapsable fund should be restored to the subject matter Ministries, with the MHA acting as the nodal Ministry.

National Register of Indian Citizens – MNIC Project

Multi-Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) will function as a necessary instrument for e-governance.
Recommendation

• The MNIC project needs to be taken up on a priority basis. Since there are several Union Government and State Government agencies which issue similar identity cards, it would be necessary to achieve convergence amongst all such systems

Capacity Building – Miscellaneous Issues

• A comprehensive framework needs to be evolved and put in place to promote the region as a preferred investment destination.
• A Transport Development Fund to finance construction of important road corridors should be set up.
• Comprehensive implementation of a ‘look east’ policy though relevant for the country as a whole, is especially important for the long term growth of the North East.
• Rail connectivity should be improved in the region on a priority basis.
• Much greater efforts are needed to establish bank branches and other credit disbursement outlets through further relaxation and incentivisation in the policies of the Reserve Bank and other financial institutions.
• There is need for setting up of centres of excellence for professional and higher education in the North East. In addition, a large scale expansion of facilities for technical education, such as ITIs, should be carried out to create a pool of skilled work force and generate entrepreneurial capacity as well as employment.
• There is a need to make an in-depth study of the customary judicial system in order to achieve better understanding and dissemination of the prevailing norms and practices.
• It is necessary to evolve a credible system of maintenance of land records for the North East.

Operational Arrangements for Conflict Management

Executive and Conflict Management – Police and Executive Magistracy

• Police Reforms recommended by the Commission in its Fifth Report, “Public Order” (Chapters 5 and 6) are likely to augment the institutional capacity of the Police to play a more proactive and effective role in conflict resolution. The Commission, therefore, reiterates these recommendations.
• Executive Magistrates in their capacity as Revenue and other field level officials as their familiarity with the field situation and general acceptability makes them eminently suitable to be involved as interlocutors in mediating in local conflicts.

Institutional Innovations for Conflict Resolution

1. State Integration Councils may be constituted to take stock of State level conflict situations
2. District level integration Councils (District Peace Committees) having suitable linkages with the State Councils may also be considered particularly for Districts with a history of violent, divisive conflicts.