TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The village level Forest Rights Committees (FRCs) have received over 7000 claims from tribals, living in six talukas which have a significant tribal population, under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
The cut off date fixed by government for settling all the claims received from Sattari, Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem, Canacona and Dharbondara is December 2013. The claims have been pending since November 2012.
However, not a single claim has been cleared by the FCS in the first stage of scrutiny.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is a law which regulates the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and other resources, which have been denied to them over decades since Independence. The tribals living in forest areas have been protesting for long and alleging harassment from forest officials.
The 7000-odd claims are over ownership of land, community rights, right of way, etc. The FRCs, as per the Act, consist of 10 to 15 members, one-third of which should be from Scheduled Tribes and one-third, women.
Director of Tribal Welfare Arvind Bugde said that claims are pending for scrutiny before the FRCs, which after verification will prepare a map delineating the area of each claim indicating recognizable landmarks. Following the approval of these claims by the respective gram sabha, they will then be submitted to the sub-divisional committee headed by the deputy collector, he said.
“Following the approval by the district-level and state-level committees, the claims will be settled as provided in the Act,” he said adding ‘Government has set December 31, 2013 as a cut off date for settling the claims.’
Bugde said that there is fear that failure of the committee to clear the claims might delay the entire process thereby throwing the implementation of the Act, off-track.
Meanwhile, government has procured the Forest Dwellers Land Mapping System developed by the Madhya Pradesh government so as to utilize it for mapping areas claimed by tribals under the Act. The department of tribal welfare has already purchased 20 units of GPS-enabled personal digital assistants (PDAs) from the MP government and is in the process of inking an MoU with the forest department of MP for purchasing the customized software for the purpose.
