BANGALORE: The state government will provide a record of rights (title deeds) to over 3,000 tribals dwelling in ‘taandas’ inside the forest within two months, Social Welfare Minister A Narayanaswamy said here on Monday.
“Giving title deeds to tribals is a step towards providing them with basic amenities.
This has to be executed jointly by two departments - the Social Welfare and Forest Department. We will prepare a joint action plan to mitigate the problem of tribals without harming their culture and habitat,” Narayanaswamy added, while speaking to reporters.
He and his colleague, Forest Minister C P Yogeshwar, held a meeting of the elected representatives of Chamarajanagar district.
“We have had a discussion with elected representatives in detail about the problems of the tribals. We have directed the officials of both the departments to work on the action plan,” Yogeshwar added.
About 6,073 tribal families dwelling in and around the forests of H D Kote have already been issued with title deeds and it is estimated that there are around 3,000 families which are yet to be issued their title deeds and the Deputy Commissioners have been directed to prepare the list of beneficiaries.
The government had received about 1.63 lakh applications seeking title deeds but about one lakh of them have been rejected as these lacked credentials and did not meet the requirements. About 13,955 applications are yet to be processed.
Both ministers said that the state government is willing to provide houses to those tribals who would like to come out of their forests and get rehabilitated in villages. “We would need around Rs 100 crore for the purpose of constructing the houses. We will request the CM to make a provision for the same,” they added.