M. Madan Gopal, Principal Secretary of the Department of Environment and Forests, has called upon the officials of the Forest and Revenue departments to initiate measures to provide land ownership rights to at least 600 families which were displaced due to Sharavati hydro-electricity project and rehabilitated in forestland, by the second week of August.
Mr. Gopal was speaking at a meeting here on Wednesday to review the progress of work on providing land ownership rights to the families displaced due to Sharavati project.
In all, 22,698 families were displaced by the Sharavati power project, which was commissioned in 1963. Later, they were rehabilitated in 10,400 hectares of forestland. Although the then State government had sanctioned the entire plot for the rehabilitated families through an official order, the ownership rights were not conferred on them.
It may be recalled here that in a similar meeting on May 15, Mr. Gopal had directed the officials to survey the land, fix the boundaries and submit a report to the government in this regard.
He said, in Sagar forest subdivision, the work of conferring ownership rights to 114 rehabilitated families in over 514 acres of land was nearing completion. In Bhadravati forest subdivision, the work of conferring ownership rights to 15 families in over 23 acres of land was on the verge of completion, he said and called upon the Forest and Revenue officials to take help from local people in the survey work and in collecting the necessary documents to confer land ownership rights.
A section of forest officials told the meeting that the survey work had been delayed by the heavy rain that was occurring continuously for the past few days. They urged the authorities concerned to appoint additional surveyors to complete it expeditiously.
Deputy Commissioner V.P. Ikkeri and Conservator of Forest Smitha Bijur were present.
Beneficiaries were rehabilitated in 10,400 acres of forestland
In Sagar, Bhadravati subdivisions, document distribution is on the verge of completion: official
