Orissa may be among the top states in India in implementing the historic Forest Rights Act, 2006, which seeks to restore the land rights to the indigenous population
KBK Plus district cluster, New Indian Express, Indian Express, Financial express, Odisha govt. action, Restoring land rights 1 Comment »Following are excerpts from a report in expressbuzz.com.
the Government has distributed over 86,000 titles under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, by December second week. … close to 90 per cent of such titles is in 15 Maoist-affected districts. To be precise, 78,011 titles have so far been distributed in these areas.
… Forest Rights Committee received a good 3,22,590 claims of which 2,86,006 were verified and sent to gram sabhas.
The gram sabha-level committee approved 2,13,666 claims recommending them for titles to the sub-divisional-level committees which verified the cases and in turn sent 99,868 claims to the district-level committees (DLCs). Finally, the DLCs gave a green signal to 88,136 claims for issue of title.
… Of the 86,878 titles distributed yet, 13,321 titles are in Malkangiri alone. …
“It’s very important to note that 17 per cent of these title certificates so far distributed in the 15-affected districts are in Malkangiri alone which at the same time account for 25 per cent (31,570 acre) land.
… The trend shows in Koraput too. The number of title certificates so far been distributed stands at 13,203 which translates into 21,784 acre land. …
For other Maoist-affected districts like Gajapati, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Sundargarh, the rate of title distribution is very high.
… Interestingly, of 1,38,004 acre land for which title certificates have been distributed, 1,25,401 acre are in tribal districts of Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Nayagarh, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Rayagada.
So far, 3,551 primitive tribal groups have been issued the titles accounting for over 5,559 acre land.