PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday admitted in the Goa legislative assembly that the multi-layered mechanism for granting rights to locals under the Central Forest Rights Act was functioning at an unsatisfactory pace.
He said, one of the layers of the mechanism, the various local committees in particular, was the root cause of the delays in the process for granting the rights to the claimants.
“The members of this committee are not entitled to any remuneration. It could be the reason why members of this FRCs show no initiative to meet often and process applications,” Sawant said while responding to a Calling Attention Motion moved by Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat and Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar.
Sawant said, the committees may have to be reconstituted very soon to speed up the process but added that spot verification of up to 40 per-cent of the 12,000-odd claims had been completed.
He also said Sattari tops in the number of applicants who have received their land rights with as many as 21 sanads having been allotted to date.
He also accepted that there was a shortage of surveyors which was causing the delay in verifying claims which are then processed at multiple levels -- Village Level Committees (VLCs), Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLCs) and District Level Committees (DLC).
In Canacona, of the 2,450 claims, 1576 have got gram sabha approval and 475 of these are approved by the SDLCs. Nine have already got their sanads. In Quepem, not a single claim of a couple of thousand has reached fruition and all applications are stuck in the process.
In Sanguem of the 1067 claims 10 have got the sanad and six are rejected.
In Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, no claims are pending as on date, Sawant said, adding that in the case of Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park, Mollem, the settlement of rights are in various stages of the process.
