Team Herald
POROVRIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Thursday assured Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar that the government will settle all forest rights claims of people from the Sanguem taluka and grievances of the people residing in the Netravali wildlife sanctuary as early as possible.
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Dr Sawant said that forest rights claims (FRC) under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 are processed by notified committees such as gram sabha, Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC) and the District Level Committee (DLC) on merit basis.
Giving status of FRC cases in the Sanguem taluka as on date, Dr Sawant said that there are 1967 individual claims and 155 community claims and spot verification has been done in 605 claims. The gram sabha approved 519 claims while, 153 claims were approved by SDLC and 83 by DLC.
The Chief Minister further informed Gaonkar sanads have been issued to 10 claims and six claims were rejected.
As far as settlement of rights of affected people and communities from the Netravali wildlife sanctuary are concerned, the government has already appointed Sanguem deputy collector and sub-divisional officer (SDO) as the revenue officer-cum-collector (ROC) for the purpose to determine the existence, nature and extent of rights of any person in or over the land comprised within the limits of the wildlife sanctuary.
The ROC has issued notices to 372 claimants so far and 18 claims have been rejected. All the remaining claimants are entitled for forest settlement rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the Chief Minister.
Earlier, Gaonkar said that there is fear and anxiety in the minds of the people from Sanguem taluka due to failure of the government to resolve various issues pertaining to settlement of grievances after notifying Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary more than 20 years ago and also apprehensions in the minds of people especially Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other traditional forest dwellers over pending cases of forest rights claims filed under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and failure to grant rights of ownership of land that have been cultivated by them since decades.
