MARGAO
A high level meeting of officials of various agencies held at the South Goa district Collectorate, South has agreed to dispose of the 1,777 forest rights cases (FRCs) pending disposal in respect of Dharbandora.
The meeting also reviewed the utilisation of the district mineral fund in the mining belt of Sanvordem and took note of the straying of wild animals in and around human habitation.
The meeting called by Public Works Department (PWD) Minister, Deepak Pauskar was attended by district Collector, Ruchika Katyal, IAS, and senior officials of the Forest Department, Tribal Department, besides Dharbandora taluka revenue officials.
After the meeting, the PWD Minister told the media the meeting discussed the issue of pending forest rights cases from the Dharbandora taluka and have decided to dispose of the cases by April.
He said when the government has embarked to make India Aatmanirbhar and Goa Swayampurna, it is in the fitness of things that the people in the hinterland areas receive their land ownership rights at the earliest.
When his attention was drawn to past promises of disposing of all the FRCs, but in vain, the PWD Minister said the authorities have decided to speed up the process so that the people can receive their ownership sanads at the earliest. ”These people have been cultivating the fields coming under the forest land prior to Liberation and have been doing so till date. The government has decided to do justice to the people,” he said.
Pauskar said the authorities have assured at Tuesday’s meeting with the district Collector that the gram sabhas will be repeatedly called to ensure that the proposals get the approvals at the meetings. “The FRCs have been reviewed by the Revenue Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other MLAs with meetings with senior officials. The authorities say it takes time to complete the paperwork, with the files doing the rounds of the Tribal Department to the revenue officials,” the Minister said, exuding confidence that the cases will be disposed of by April 31, 2021.
On the utilisation of the district mineral fund for the benefit of the mining affected people, Pauskar said a suggestion has been made to the district Collector to clear the pending bills of the school buses deployed to ferry school children from the mining belt.
