Minister for Forests and Environment B. Ramanath Rai has said the government will appoint a special officer to study the problems faced by families that were displaced by the Sharavathi hydel power project and rehabilitated on forest land.
A total of 22,698 families were displaced by the project commissioned in 1964 and were rehabilitated on 13,067 acres of forest land.
The Forest Department, though it had granted the land for rehabilitation purpose, in official records, the land still belongs to the department. There was a demand from the rehabilitated families to denotify the land and transfer it to the Revenue Department.
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The special officer would be directed to study these problems and submit a report to the government in three months, Mr. Rai said at a press conference here on Thursday.
The denotification of forest land and transfer to the Revenue Department is necessary to confer land ownership rights to the displaced families presently in possession of the land.
In many cases, there was no information regarding the boundary of the forest land, leading to confusion over the jurisdiction and ownership of such land.
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A big chunk of the displaced families don’t have records to prove ownership of the land they are cultivating.
The special officer would be asked to study these problems and recommend solutions, Mr. Rai said. Earlier in the day, the Minister held a meeting with the affected families.
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Kagodu Thimmappa, who chaired the meeting said that many displaced families had constructed houses and were engaged in cultivation of the forest land that was acquired by Karnataka Power Project (KPC) for the Sharavathi project. The KPC officials should be directed to take steps to give the families ownership rights, he said.
Principal Secretary, Department of Forests and Environment M. Madan Gopal, Shikaripur MLA B.Y. Raghavendra, Shivamogga Rural MLA Sharada Pooryanaik, MLC M.B. Bhanuprakash, and Deputy Commissioner V.P. Ikkeri were present.