More than a year after the Supreme Court had vacated its stay on a Madras High Court order and facilitated distribution of land title deeds to those entitled,under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the State government had issued title deeds only to 472 persons so far.
Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Minister V.M. Rajalakshmi, who had informed this in the State Assembly last week, had said that work was under way to distribute the title deeds to others.
However, forest rights activist and secretary of National Adivasi Solidarity Council K. Krishnan, alleged that the State government was notshowing interest on the issue in distributing land title deeds to tribal communities and forest-dwellers in the State.
“The government has given title deeds only in areas around Kalvarayan Hills in Villupuram district, while no progress is witnessed in other areas. Lack of clarity of tribal and forest-dwellers’ rights and lack of training of forest officials are major reasons behind the slow distribution . Distribution of land deeds is an ongoing process,” Mr. Krishnan said.
Madurai-based tribal activist and state co-ordinator of Ekta Parishad S. Thanaraj, said lack of knowledge on tribal communities in the southern districts and lack of interest on the part of the officials were reasons behind the delay in distributing title deeds to tribals.
No community rights
“This Act is their last resort as it provides for major welfare measures for tribals but it will benefit them only if it is implemented. More than individual rights, community rights are more important as they define the basic rights of tribal communities. Unfortunately, not even a single community right has been given in the State so far,” he said.
The policy note of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department maintained that necessary ground work had been carried out for the distribution of title deeds to the claimants and based on the geo-referencing, individual rights and community rights had been taken up for distribution to 2,620 (individual rights – 2,551 and community rights - 69) beneficiaries in 12 districts.
