BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government said it will do everything to protect the rights of the tribals and other traditional forest dwellers facing the threat of eviction as per the recent Supreme Court ruling, the BJP on Monday said over six lakh people of 1.4 lakh tribal families will be affected if their claims over forest land is not settled by July.
A delegation of the BJP led by State vice-president Samir Mohanty met Governor Ganeshi Lal and sought his intervention to protect the rights of tribals under the Forest Rights Act before next hearing of the case scheduled on July 27, 2019.
Accusing Odisha Government of using the tribals as vote bank, BJP spokesperson Pitamber Acharya said it is the responsibility of the State to ensure that the claims of tribals and other traditional forest dwellers over forest land are settled in their favour.
If a claim is rejected, the claimant has to be informed about the reasons for rejection and he should be given reasonable opportunity to produce evidence in support of his claim. Minister for ST and SC Development Ramesh Majhi said the State Government will take urgent measures to protect the rights of forest dwellers.
The claims that have been rejected will reviewed on case-to-case basis and allot patta to the actual claimants, he added.