Protest against delay in allotment of titles under FRA
The residents of Bara Bhangal and shepherds of many other villages located in various parts of Kangra district have lamented that they were not being given titles under the Forest Rights Act 2006. Many of people, who had applied for the titles under the Forest Rights Act, today protested in front of the Dharamsala mini secretariat and submitted a memorandum of their demands to Kangra Deputy Commissioner Hemraj Bairwa.
State Advisor of Gamantu Pashupalak Sabha of Himachal, Akshay Jasrotia who was part of the protest, said that 50 claims of communities and 351 claims of individuals under the Forest Rights Act have been pending for the past many years. He alleged that the said claims have been passed by village level committees and sub division level committees and sent to the district level committees. However, their claims have not been settled and titles have not been issued.
He said in the year 2014, forest rights committees were formed in Gram Panchayats and after that the process of filing individual and community claims started. All claimants had submitted their claims in Form A to the concerned Forest Rights Committees and they had prepared community claims in Form B and C on behalf of the Gram Sabha under Rule 11(4). The claims were then passed by the Gram Sabha after completing the process of investigation and were deposited to the concerned Sub Division Level Committee (SDLC).
Jasrotia alleged in the year 2020, community forest rights pattas have been provided by District Level Committee (DLC) to 28 gram sabhas of Multhan tehsil of Baijnath subdivision. The community forest rights claim of Gram Sabha Bada Bhangal of Multhan tehsil was approved by the SDLC, Baijnath, and sent to DLC, which is still pending. Apart from this, community and individual claims from Baijnath tehsil, Palampur, Jaisinghpur, Nurpur, Dharamsala and Multhan of Kangra district have been passed by the Gram Sabhas and submitted to the SDLC and the DLC, he said.
Jasrotia alleged that families eligible under the Forest Rights Act are being evicted by issuing eviction orders without completing the Forest Rights Act procedure, which is a blatant violation of Section 4(5) of the Forest Rights Act.
The present government had clearly written in its election manifesto that if the Congress forms the government, then "Forest Rights Act would be implemented in the state. Despite the political will towards this law in the state, the administration is not showing seriousness in implementing this law. Therefore, even after two years of the government, not a single community and individual rights patta has been provided by the government in Kangra district, he alleged.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the DLC for allotting forest rights to people was held at Dharamsala today. Sources here said that the administration was likely to give titles under the Forest Rights Act to many Pong Dam Oustees who are residing in Dehra Assembly constituency.
Kangra DC Hemraj Bairwa, when asked, said that all claims whose papers are in order would be cleared at the earliest. The state government has ordered that all claims under the Forest Rights Act should be cleared. “So we will be processing the cases and all claims where papers are in order would be cleared,” he said.
