the goan I network
MARGAO
Less than a week after a high-level meeting comprising of four ministers and senior officials resolved to expedite the forest rights cases, the district authorities made a beginning on Monday with the long pending forest right claims pertaining to villagers of Deusa, Village Deao of Quepem have been approved by the district Collector.
Out of 14 cases, 10 cases came up for hearing before the Collector on Monday, while four cases were already approved previously. These 14 cases were pending for over four years now.
Expressing happiness over the nod given by the district Collector, Dy. Chief Minister and Quepem MLA Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar said, “After persistent follow up with Forest Department and local bodies the misunderstanding created due to forest survey conducted using Google maps in the year 2005, was cleared between villagers and department.”
He said villagers had raised their objections against the Google survey of the forest department where their homes and properties were not seen.
“Since it was a satellite image, trees around the properties and small houses hid them. The villagers then submitted their birth certificates of 1950s to show their birth in the same village. This was a genuine case of community existence at the Deusa in Deao village since I started representing Quepem constituency,” he said
The Dy CM praised the efforts of Collector South for understanding these genuine cases, adding that the authorities realized the importance and sensitivity of these cases and studied them in depth before delivering the verdict.
The district Collector, South chaired the meeting that granted the clearance on Monday, along with representatives of Forests and SDMs. FRC cases of Quepem, Dharbandora, Canscona and Betora in Ponda taluka and cases under Kumeri Cultivation were also heard.
Remedios Rebello, President of Deao FRC expressed satisfaction over today’s long pending clearence. He said that it was Dy CM’s continuous follow up with authorities helped hear these cases on priority.
Caetani Fernandes, secretary, Deao FRC expressed her happiness on the cases being heard in favour of the villagers. She thanked Dy CM for his continuous support to the villagers for this long pending issue.
