the goan I network
SANGUEM
Around 25 tribal families living in the hilly area of Nunem ward of Netravali Village Panchayat were a relieved lot after their claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 filed some 12 years ago were cleared by the Sub Divisional Level Committee last week.
At a meeting chaired by Sub Divisional Officer and Deputy Collector Sanguem Ajay Gaude, and attended by Sanguem BDO Bhagwant Karmali, Joint Mamlatdar Ana Rita Pereira, Range Forest Officers Bipin Faldessai and Mohandas Naik, Secretary Gurudas Gaonkar and other members of Village Level forest Committee, as many as 25 files were cleared confirming the families’ exclusive rights over the land held by the forest dwellers.
The files will now be sent to the Chairman District Level Committee headed by Collector and State Level Committee headed by Chief Secretary for the issuance of final order and sanad.
The claims from the tribals and other forest dwellers were received by the government in 2006 under the Schedule Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 wherein Village Level Committees were formed to receive, scrutinize and forward to the concerned Deputy Collector, the claims so that the legitimate encroachers on government land are given due ownership of the land cultivated by them for generations together.
However, despite the claims being long submitted by the forest dwellers, the process of finalizing the claims was delayed for a quite a long time and most of the files were reportedly found gathering dust in the village panchayats or in the Office of the Block Development Office allegedly for want of documents.
However, recently when the Sanguem Deputy Collector Ajay Gaude was entrusted with the additional charge as Collector for Forest Rights Claims in Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary, he began working in the right earnest and soon called for a meeting of the officials associated with the clearance of proposals and applications.
Gaude directed the officials to immediately get the files to his office which the concerned officers had held back for no valid reasons.
After strenuous efforts and working hard on the issue, Gaude cleared as many as 25 files early last week and this included that of Laxawati Gaonkar, Kishor K Gaonkar, Suresh B Gaonkar, Suresh B Gaonkar, Sukdo M Gaonkar, Deepak Gaonkar, Arvind P Gaonkar, Dinesh R Gaonkar, Damu B Gaonkar, Shanu J Gaonkar, Prabhakar B Gaonkar, Balu R Gaonkar, Jayanthi J Gaonkar, Sandeep Gaonkar, Sulakshawati Gaonkar, Bharati B Gaonkar, Ranjeeta R Gaonkar, Shantaram S Gaonkar, Rohidas S Gaonkar, Gun P Gaonkar, Dhawlo D Gaonkar, Anand B Gaonkar, Chandrakant P Gaonkar, Sangtu G Gaonkar, Subhash Gaonkar and Vithal B Gaonkar.
The villagers were elated after their files were cleared by Gaude which were pending for last over 12 years. They also thanked the Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar for his efforts in taking up their issues with the government authorities.
The Sanguem MLA complimented Gaude for his strenuous efforts and getting the files cleared in a very short period of time.
