South Goa District Collector, Egna Cleetus, chairs the South Goa District Level Committee on forest rights cases.
PANAJI
Following directions from the Chief Minister to fast-track forest right claims, the North District Administration has cleared almost 134 claims under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act in the last three months.
Collector Anikt Yadav has been chairing monthly meetings of the district-level committee (DLC) to clear pending claims from North Goa. On Thursday, a total of 45 claims were approved during the DLC meeting, which included 38 claims of Zarme village alone.
Earlier in July, the committee had approved 60 cases, while 30 cases were rejected as the applicants claimed revenue land or land owned by the Goa Forest Development Corporation. Also, 17 claims were sent back to the sub-divisional level committee (SDLC) for further clarification after discrepancies were noticed in the size of the land being claimed.
This was followed by another meeting in August, wherein 43 claims were taken up for screening. Of the total claims, 29 were approved, while three were sent back to the sub-divisional level committee for fresh verification. Eleven applications were rejected on grounds of duplication.
Goa has about 10,137 applications for forest rights, of which 870 cases were cleared, and 949 cases were rejected prior to the fast-track schedule. The Government is in the process of issuing sanads to another 1,400 applicants.
Of the 10,500 applications, 9,757 pertain to individuals, while 379 are community claims.
So far, the government-appointed forest rights committee (FRC) has conducted spot verification of almost 7,000 claims. The sub-divisional level committee has cleared 2,750 claims, which were forwarded to the district-level committee.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has set December 19, 2025, to clear all the pending claims.
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South Goa committee finalises 104 forest rights cases
MARGAO: The District Level Committee, South Goa, chaired by District Collector Egna Cleetus, IAS, has finalised a total of 104 claims received under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
The meeting was convened by the District Collector on Thursday to review and decide on claims pertaining to Quepem Taluka.
The cases were disposed of under Project Adhikaar, a mission-mode initiative launched under the guidance of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in order to expedite the settlement of Forest Rights Committee (FRC) claims.
The office of the District Collector has stated that the Committee finalised a total of 104 claims from the villages of Padi, Quiscond, Cordem, and Quedem in Quepem Taluka.
Thousands of Forest Rights applications from South Goa have been pending over the years, with officials saying the initiative under Project Adhikaar promises to dispose of the pending cases.
