MARGAO: Assuring that pending 7,500 cases under the Forest Rights Act will be disposed of within the next one and half years, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant appealed to the members of tribal communities not to sell their land to others, instead pass it on to the next generation.
He also assured to start with the initiative of the ‘Saturday Court’ in order to reduce the pendency of the cases.
Sawant in the presence of Speaker for Goa Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar, South Goa District Collector Jyoti Kumari and others distributed titles for forest land under occupation, under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006, distributed nearly 455 sand titles.
He said that the Forest Rights Committees have received a total 10,136 number of claims in the State of Goa, which include 2,482 in North and 7,654 in South Goa.
“At the moment nearly 1,500 cases under the Forest Rights Act have been disposed of and titles have been given to the concerned ones. By this year end, we will be able to dispose of any other 2,500 petitions,” he informed.
The Chief Minister said, “Within the next one and half years all pending cases under the above Act will be disposed of.” He said, “The process itself takes one year and the government will surely do the follow-up pertaining to the community-related land cases.”
“We know that several people from the tribal community were waiting to see that they get rights on their lands. This government has given justice to the people and will work hard to resolve this issue in future too. But people should not sell out their land after getting the rights, instead do maximum cultivation and pass on the land to the next generation,” he appealed.
