MARGAO: Without mincing words, Tribal Welfare Minister Govind Gaude on Wednesday urged the government officials to provide justice to the poor and downtrodden and help in providing the forest rights to the deserving people.
Gaude warned the government officials and panchayat secretaries of losing their jobs by suspension for failing in their duties.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the workshop on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Forest Rights Act at Margao, he said, “The tribal and forest rights have been achieved after much struggle and it was the government servants’ responsibility to provide those rights to the people.”
“It is sad that the Forest Rights Act, which was promulgated in 2006, is yet to be implemented in Goa,” he said and sought to know where the administration was failing to provide the rights to the people.
He urged the deputy collectors to set up a target of issuing at least 10 sanads every month and thus in the eight talukas that have forest at least 80 people would get their sanads and right to the land every month.
“The good salaries you are getting is not to live in comfortable houses and send your children in posh cars to schools but to deliver the rights to the downtrodden,” he said and asked the government servants to quit their jobs if their personal attachments are affecting their public service.
He said within 20 days he would ask officials like deputy collectors and mamlatdars to submit a report on the status of forest rights cases and sought to know from the officers the difficulties they faced. Deputy Collectors of Sanguem and Quepem pointed out to the difficulties they faced in dealing with Forest Right cases.
In the first place, they said cases were rejected as the panchayat secretaries did not follow proper procedure while another complaint was that the Tribal Welfare Department was not giving clear guidelines of procedures which have been hit by ambiguities.
A tribal activist alleged that the officers have not understood the law properly and are using it to harass the poor. He alleged that some officers are insisting on a particular document to be produced but in reality the law stipulates that any two documents can be submitted.
