2401 Community Forest Rights claims pending in Odisha
BHUBANESWAR: With over 2,400 claims over community forest resources (CFR) rights pending for disposal for more than 10 years, Odisha State Food Commission has requested district collectors to implement the Forest Rights Act in true spirit to promote food and nutritional security of forest dwellers.
Expressing concern over pending claims, the Commission said a majority of the cases are from tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district. “It appears, the chairpersons of district-level committee are not bothered to review the progress (of implementation of FRA) and take corrective measures,” chairperson of the commission RL Jamuda said in a letter to the collectors.
A review by the Commission on implementation of CFR rights revealed that district level committees headed by collectors have approved 3,525 claims out of 5,362 applications forwarded by the sub-divisional committees.Even after approval of the claims by DLCs, land titles have been distributed in favour of 2,826 claims. “It is a matter of concern that titles are pending for distribution of 699 claims, of which 497 relate to Mayurbhanj alone,” the letter said.
Even after distribution of 2,826 titles, the authorities concerned have demarcated area for 300 titles of which 220 cases are from Mayurbhanj. While demarcation of land is pending for 2,516 cases, the highest number of cases (2,221) are from Kandhamal district.
Community forest right broadly covers the right to protect, regenerate, conserve or manage community forest resources by the forest dwellers.The review further revealed that as many as 2,401 claims are pending for more than 10 years and major defaulters are district administration of Mayurbhanj (636), Sambalpur (173), Boudh (173), Malkangiri (161), Nabarangpur (161), Nayagarh (159), Koraput (158), Nuapada (144) and Kandhamal (130).
“The most unfortunate part is that preparation of record has not been done for a single case in the entire State though demarcation of land has been completed for 300 titles,” he said adding, there is nothing on government record to protect the entitlements of the title holders. The Commission requested the collectors to give top priority to the cases which are pending for more than 1o years and report the progress by December 15.