the goan I network
PANAJI
Special gram sabhas have been convened in 6 constituencies including Canacona, Sanguem, Sanvordem, Sattari, Quepem and Ponda today in order to allow the 15-member Forest Rights Committee of each panchayat to hear the claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Chairperson of Goa Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prakash Velip and Director for Tribal Welfare Venancio Furtado informed that based on the usage of forest land prior to 2005, each claimant can be allotted a maximum of 40,000 sq mts of forest land for cultivation. “At present, we have received 10,083 applications and of these 9,5000 are individual applicants,” Velip said.
He explained that each application is scrutinized by the FRC of the panchayat before being placed before the gram sabha for its consent. Once passed by the gram sabha, the application then moves to the sub-divisional committee and then to the deputy collector for issuance of sand. Around 147 FRCs have been constituted in Goa to carry out this specific task. Director Furtado stated that 29 sanads have been issued till date after the due completion of this exhaustive procedure. “What takes time is the spot verification of the land in question. We have conducted 2,782 spot verifications till date. The target is to go through all 10,000 applications by the end of the year,” he said.
Meanwhile, the department of Tribal Welfare is all set to host a high-level workshop on January 29 as a culmination of its ongoing drive to create awareness about availing forest rights. The MLAs of each of these constituencies will remain present for the day-long workshop.
