A total of 430 individual titles for land ownership will be granted to forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers on Sathy hills under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, once a court case against such granting of pattas is settled, official sources said.
The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs is keen on early conversion of forest villages into revenue villages as a vital component of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, called FRA in short.
According to the Ministry, the Act that makes officials of Forest Department part of committees constituted at different levels for recognition and vesting of forest rights is under implementation in various States. The Ministry has observed a significant increase in community rights title distribution: As on February 28, 2015 as many as 15,32,555 individual titles and 29,898 community titles had been issued.
Tamil Nadu, however, has not kept pace with the implementation of FRA. In a recent representation to the Chief Secretary, who is the Chairperson of the State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) constituted under the Act to ensure establishment of Gram Sabhas, constitution of Forest Rights Committees, and determine Community Forest Resources rights by the Gram Sabhas, Bhavani Sagar MLA P.L. Sundaram questioned the State’s tardy progress in distribution of titles for land ownership.
Demanding a public announcement on implementation of FRA 2006, Mr. Sundaram had said that there were only 21,781 titles for land ownership (18,420 individual and 3,361 community) to be distributed. But, just 3,723 titles were ready for distribution to the tribal community people pending approval of the Supreme Court, despite notification of rules as early as in 2008, Mr. Sundaram said.
The process requires SLMC to identify hamlets, and instruct Tribal Welfare Department to convene hamlet-level Gram Sabha and constitute Forest Rights Committees. The department is required to organise training about the Act to all members of the Forest Rights Committees along with members of the Sub-Divisional Level Committees and District Level Committees.
