2 Sep : The Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Kanti Lal Bhuria has written to the Chief Ministers of the States which have not performed well regarding the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act,. These States include Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttrakhand and Maharashtra.
As per the information received in the Ministry, the progress of implementation of the Act in the States, as on 31.07.10, has not been satisfactory at all. In Goa, disposal of the claims has been nil. Similarly in others States too disposal of claims has been very low e.g., Assam – 26.01%, Gujarat – 18.10%, Jharkhand – 30.84%, Karnataka – 04.20%, Kerala – 30.92% sand Maharashtra – 24.94%,
Shri Bhuria has stressed the need for the States to launch a special campaign for generating wide-spread awareness about the provisions of the Act amongst the forest dwellers and for imparting training to the field level functionaries for this purpose. The Gram Sabhas in the State could be given instructions to make special efforts for inviting claims.
In view of the priority being accorded to the implementation of the Act at the highest level, he has requested the Chief Ministers to direct the concerned officers to make vigorous efforts for inviting claims and processing the same expeditiously for issue of title deeds to all the eligible claimants on priority basis. He has also asked the Chief Ministers to take action for dovetailing the development and welfare programmes for the uplift of potential title holders.