CM promises settlement of forest right claims by Dec 19

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday announced a fast-track schedule to clear claims for land under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act.

A special gram sabha will be convened on June 21 in villages to approve pending applications and forward them to the sub-divisional level committee (SDLC).He said that the two district collectors will conduct meetings with authorities to coordinate and organise special camps on June 14 across six talukas to fast-track pending forest rights cases. There were 10,500 applications for forest rights submitted, of which 870 cases were cleared and 949 cases were rejected because the land was not forest land but revenue land.“We have decided that by Dec 19, all applications will be disposed of,” said Sawant.On Thursday, the North Goa collector and South Goa collector will hold a meeting with the panchayat secretary, joint mamlatdars and BDOs to prepare the groundwork for the gram sabha meetings and special camps.“On June 14, in the talukas — Quepem, Sattari, Dharbandora, Sanguem, Ponda and Canacona — the dy collector will hold special camps from 10am to 1pm,” said Sawant.

He added that of the 10,500 applications, about 8,000 are pending —2,000 at the gram sabha level and 3,500 with the deputy collectors. The rest are at various other stages of processing. Applications to recognise the rights of forest-dwelling communities have been pending since 2006. The current process requires the claims to be approved by the respective gram sabha, after which the file is sent for the SLDC’s approval.

Once the SLDC clears the application, the respective district collector grants the final nod and issues the Sanad certificate.“The cases that are pending with the deputy collector will be reviewed on June 18, and they will clear approximately 3,970 cases on that one day and send them to the collector. The collector has about 564 cases that need to be issued sanads. Right now, we have sanads ready for 150 applicants. On June 9, we will give these 150 sanads to the applicants,” said the CM.Dismissing allegations of govt inaction, Sawant blamed delays on non-participation at gram sabhas and the failure of community representatives to prepare files. “We found that people were not attending gram sabhas. So we’ve simplified the process — our staff will now prepare the files, and applicants only need to attend the gram sabha,” he said.Sawant also cited issues with a survey agency that abandoned its work midway. “It’s not a bureaucratic delay. The process depends on a community-based committee. But going forward, our govt staff will handle the file preparation,” he said.