Officials told to distribute title deeds to farmers quickly

Process is being deliberately delayed, says Kagodu Thimmappa

Kagodu Thimmappa, Speaker of Legislative Assembly has directed the officials of the departments of forest and revenue to complete the process of conferring title deeds of forestland being cultivated by farmers under the Forest Rights Act by December-end.

Mr. Thimmappa was speaking at a workshop on the implementation of Forest Rights Act at B.R. Ambedkar Bhavan here on Thursday.

He expressed displeasure over a section of Forest Department officials, who were deliberately delaying the process of clearing the applications submitted by farmers for title deeds under the Act.

Certain misconceptions among the officials on the Act should be cleared. The condition to provide documents for domicile in forestland for 75 years or three generations was cited as a reason for the delay in conferring title deeds.

The Act had a provision for conferring title deeds even on the basis of oral statements made by an elderly person from the village, on domicile, he said.

More than 70,000 farmers in the district have submitted applications under the Act, seeking title deeds. It was unfortunate that not even one per cent of the total number of applications had been cleared so far, he said.

Disciplinary action should be initiated against the officials not meeting the December 31 deadline fixed by Union government for clearing the applications, he said.