Margao: The Tribal Welfare Minister of Goa Govind Gawade has advised the officials of the department to complete all pending process of the Forest Rights act before December. He held a meeting of all the related officials at Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex on Monday.
Additional Collector, Deputy Collector, Mamlatdar and Forest Officials attended the meeting. The Minister wanted to understand the nitty-gritty of the Forest Rights act and the bottlenecks in getting the act into service. Minister Gawade also attempted to find out the status of the finalisation of the Act and also to set a time frame of December to get the act in service.
“The issues in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act will be cleared and the act would be implemented by December. This will also give the rights to cultivate the fields in Forest areas” told Govind Gaude.
The United Tribal Associations Alliance(UTAA) has complained that the implementation of law which is a boon to the tribals has been deferred for a long time. The Tribals from Forest Areas have been facing immense problems while availing their rightful benefits due to the non implementation of the law. UTAA has been playing a pivotal role in getting the demands of the these distressed tribals for years and now there is a sigh of relief as a UTAA worker has become the Minister for Tribal welfare and all hopes are pinned on the minister.
