PANAJI
With almost 10,000 claims under Forest Rights Act pending for settlement, the State government has directed the panchayats to hold special Gram Sabhas on January 26 to scrutinise the claims and submit it to the sub-divisional level committee for disposal. The Government has set a March 31 deadline to dispose of all the pending cases.
The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had recently raised concern over huge pendency of Forest Right Claims and implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA, 2006) in Goa.
As per the government data, as on date, of the 10,136 claims made, spot verification has been completed in 6,543 cases, 3,293 have gone through Panchayat Gramsabha while 1,777 claims have reached at the collector office level.
Sources informed that the Directorate of Panchayat has directed panchayats to hold special Gram Sabhas on January 26 to clear the pending process and forward the same to the deputy collector’s office for final disposal. The gram sabhas will be held at the taluka level panchayats of Quepem, Ponda, Dharbandora, Canacona, Sanguem and Sattari.
As per the data, the pending cases in these talukas are 2,342 in Canacona, 1,651 in Quepem, 1,229 in Sattari, 953 in Sanguem, 558 in Dharbandora and 227 in Sanguem.
As on October 2023, total 485 forest dwellers claims have been settled and been issued Sanad.
As per the rule, the Gram Sabhas have to initiate the process for determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights or both that may be given to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers within the local limits of its jurisdiction under the Act by receiving claims, consolidating and verifying them then pass a resolution to that effect and thereafter forward a copy of the same to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee.
During a review meeting held last month, the Chief Minister had said that though the government is 100 per cent committed to clear the claims, the lack of co-operation from the claimants and non-submission of required documents has delayed the entire process. Also, the forest dwellers skip the spot verification process or Gram Sabhas, he had said.
Forest Rights claimants are given sanads of their land through a three- tiered process comprising of Spot verification by the officials in the presence of the claimant, discussion on the claim in the Gram Sabha and completion of related process by the Deputy Collectors office and issuing of sanads by the Collector office.
