M. Madan Gopal, Principal Secretary of the Department of Forest and Environment, has directed the officials of the departments of Forest and Revenue to expeditiously complete the survey of land in places where families displaced due to the Sharavati hydroelectricity project had been rehabilitated.
He was speaking at a meeting held here on Saturday to review the progress of the survey of such land.
In all, 22,698 families displaced from Sharavati project, which was commissioned in 1963, had been rehabilitated in 10,400 hectares of forest land. Although the State government had sanctioned the land for rehabilitated families through an Government Order, the ownership rights had not been conferred on the occupants.
Report
The officials of Forest and Revenue departments would survey this land, fix the boundaries and submit a report to the government so that appropriate measures could be initiated to confer ownership rights to displaced families, he said.
Mohan Gangolli, Assistant Conservator of Forest, told the meeting that nearly 5,000 hectares of land had to be surveyed in Sagar taluk alone. He said, the work could be expedited if additional surveyors could be provided. Of the 10,400 hectares of forest land, the survey of 1,000 hectares had been completed. The survey of another 1,500 hectares would be completed in the next five days, he said.
Dilemma
A section of the displaced families had been rehabilitated in the land coming under the purview of wildlife sanctuaries.
The issue of conferring ownership rights on such families would be discussed at a meeting of the State Wildlife Board. A proposal would be submitted to the Union government in this regard.
The ownership rights could be conferred on such families only after obtaining the Union government’s permission, he said.
When a section of forest officials at the meeting said that the land should be de-notified and handed over to the Department of Revenue before conferring the ownership rights to eligible families, he said de-notification was needed for granting ownership rights to farmers, who had encroached upon the forestland.
No need to de-notify
The government had already sanctioned the forest land to the displaced families. Only the conferring of land ownership rights to was pending. There was no need to de-notify the land already sanctioned for the displaced families, he said.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest G.V. Sugur and Deputy Commissioner V.P. Ikkeri were present.
Of the 10,400 ha to be surveyed, work on 1,000 ha has been completed, say forest officials
‘Additional surveyors required to speed up
the process’
