As seen on the Times of India
VISAKHAPATNAM: Even though seven years have passed since the central government passed the ROFR Act 2006 (Recognition of Forest Rights Act)” thousands of tribals in the district are still awaiting land rights or title deeds for occupying forest lands. As per the ROFR Act” tribals occupying forest lands prior to 2005 are entitled to land rights documents.
As per government statistics” Vizag district has a tribal population of 5.58 lakh” which comprises 15% of the total population of the district. Across 11 mandals” there are 933 gram panchayats in the district” 222 being in Paderu sub-division alone. There is also discrepancy in the statistics available with the government and those collected by NGOs regarding the pendency of title deeds.
More than 60% of claims are still pending due to the delays in coordination among various government departments” point out NGOs and tribal welfare organisations. S Balaraju” director” Nature NGO” which works in the Agency areas” said” “Overall in the district” around 60″200 claims for patta or land rights have been made” but only around 25″000 have been settled ever since ROFR came into force seven years ago. The delay is mainly due to lack of coordination among various government departments including the revenue” forest” tribal development” gram panchayats and so on.”
“The review of claims is not done properly and findings of the panchayat committees regarding claimed lands are not taken into consideration by the departments. Each tribal is entitled to access up to 10 acres of land but they are given far less” usually less than an acre after settlement of their land rights claims”” alleged Balaraju.
Due to the non-availability of land rights documents” tribals are facing a lot of problems in bank linkages or availing of local welfare and land development schemes of the government” adversely affecting their livelihood and forcing them to migrate elsewhere and work as labourers” point out tribal welfare organisations and NGOs.
Girinastam project” under Dhimsa Foundation” along with other civil societies” has been studying the access of tribal homes to land entitlements under the ROFR Act. Its project coordinator K Ramachandra said” “We had collected data from 17 gram panchayats that includes 222 villages in Paderu division. Also” out of 8″216 tribal households” 517 have already migrated elsewhere.”
However” after the delay of over seven years” the district administration claims it is finally speeding up the issue” with plans to settle the first phase of claims by January and the rest by next month. Revenue divisional officer (Paderu division) Ganapati Rao said” “In Paderu division” around 5″000 tribals are waiting for land rights of over 10″000 acres of land. We have sent the proposal to the forest department and have furnished all the data. The forest department is now verifying the database and claims of lands occupied prior to 2005 through satellite images using GPS (geo-positioning system). Once that is done” we will be issuing the pattas or forest land occupancy rights to the tribals concerned.”
“We are targeting handing over land rights in phases to 15″000 tribals waiting for it. Total land for which title deeds are to be issued is around 22″000 acres. More than 6″000 tribals are supposed to get the deeds by this month end” while documents of 6″800 are being prepared”” stated Vizag district collector Solomon Arokiaraj.
However” Vinay Chand” project officer” Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA)” said” “We are looking into it and jointly surveying the claims of the land with the forest and revenue departments. In phase one” around 6″000 claims will be settled and another 7″500 claims would be settled in phase two” within two months.”
As per government statistics” Vizag district has a tribal population of 5.58 lakh” which comprises 15% of the total population of the district. Across 11 mandals” there are 933 gram panchayats in the district” 222 being in Paderu sub-division alone. There is also discrepancy in the statistics available with the government and those collected by NGOs regarding the pendency of title deeds.