Saturday,
17 November 2012 21:10
SUDHIR
MISHRA | BALANGIR
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The recent amendment to the
Forest Right Act (FRA), 2006, which empowers forest dwellers to collect,
process, transport and take up value addition of Non Timber Forest Produce
(NTFP), would go a long way in ensuring the livelihood of millions of poor
people living in forest areas.
Prior to this
amendment, forest dwellers were finding it difficult to get the permission for
transporting and selling of their produce. Now it is the Gram Sabha which will
give transit permit, observed experts of the Regional Manager of Regional
Centre for Development and Cooperation (RCDC) at a district level workshop.
It was organised by the
District Forestry Forum, Balangir, (DFF) in collaboration with RCDC at
Saintala, 40km from here.
The Forest Rights Act, 2006
which came into operation since 2008, gives individual forest rights and
community rights over forest.
Attended by members of
village forest protection committees and members of Sub divisional level forest
rights committee (SLDC), the workshop expressed concern over delay in granting
community claims over forest in Balangir.
So far, in Balangir
district out of the 4,796 individual claims over forest, a total of 1,190
claims have been approved and a total of 2,828.28 acres of land has been given.
However, in the patta distributed to the people, the sketch map of the area has
not been attached. As a result, when a person wants to be covered under
different development scheme like MO Pokhari and Farm Pond scheme, one has to
face a lot of hurdles and at times resulting in denial of the intended benefit.
Besides this, title has been distributed in the community forest or village
forest area not in reserve forest area.
As per a Government
notification, the SDLC should provide all the historical records of that area
to the Gram Sabha. According to reports, the forest dwellers, other than
tribals, are being asked by the department people to furnish evidence of
residing there for three generations. As there is no historical record with
them, they are facing a lot of difficulties, the experts said.
The SDLC should facilitate
the process and provide them with the record and other evidence of that area,
opined Amar Gouda. However, in community claim over forest, although 1,143 claims
have been made by the District Forestry Forum (DFF), not a single claim has
been approved by the Forest Department, he rued.
Divisional Forest Officer
Abhiram Nayak spoke about the recent amendment to the Forest Right Act and
stressed on proper implementation of the Act. So far, in Balangir district, a
total of 1,190 beneficiaries got entitlements for 2,828.77acres of forest
land,74 people got house under IAY, six were included in Mo Kudia Yojana, 47
under Mo Pokhari and lands of 317 persons were taken up for development,
informed District Welfare Officer Amiya Kumar Mahanty.
The SDLC has sent 27
community forest rights claim for joint verification. To facilitate the process
further, a legal aid cell has been started at Block level, Mahanty informed.
Among others, Kulamani Sahu, Thakur Sahu, Milan Kumar Pati members of SDLC,
besides other officials spoke.
