With the Supreme Court setting June 21, 2021, as the cut-off date for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, tribal body, the United Tribal Association Alliance (UTAA), on Wednesday sent an SOS to the government to come out with a mechanism to clear the backlog of pending cases pegged around 9778 under the Act.
In fact, UTAA Convenor Prakash Velip has invited Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Tribal Welfare Minister Govind Gaude for a programme on Friday at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, to discuss and deliberate on ways and means to clear the backlog within the June 21 deadline.
Velip said the Goa government will have to either speed up the disposal of the backlog of the Forest Rights cases or move the Supreme Court, seeking extension of time in view of the intervening Covid-19 pandemic situation.
Addressing the media, the UTAA Chief expressed concern that the tribal people may lose benefits under the Forest Rights Act if the pending cases are not disposed of by June 2021. “We have called the programme at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, on February 5 with the sole objective of finding a solution to the pending cases under the Forest Rights Act. We will discuss and deliberate with the Chief Minister and the Tribal Welfare Minister on how to go about in the matter and mete out justice to the tribals,” he added.
He said though the Forest Rights Act was enacted way back in 2006, its implementation in the state had started only after 2012. When questioned whether the BJP government ruling the state since 2012 had failed to dispose of the pending cases, Velip said the BJP government did take up several measures to speed up the process, but in vain.
“The government had roped in experts to do the mapping via GPS, but the availability of device had delayed the process. Late Manohar Parrikar did give a push to the issue by reducing the quorum at the meetings of Forest Rights Committee to 50 per cent from the two-third requirement. Incumbent Chief Minister and Tribal Welfare Minister Govind have also tried to take the process forward, but somehow the exercise is stuck somewhere,” he said.
Conceding that the number of sanads issued under the Forest Rights Act is considerably low as compared to the pending cases, Velip wondered how the government can dispose of the 9778 cases within the next four months and a half.
“This is a burning issue. UTAA has been fighting to secure the rights of the tribals over the last 17 years. We had lost two tribal youth Manguesh Gaonkar and Dilip Velip, who had sacrificed their lives for the cause of the tribal community,” he said while calling for close coordination amongst the officials of various departments, including Forest, Revenue, Mamlatdars, Deputy Collectors, to resolve the issue.
