Tribal associations have demanded the State government to provide pattas for tribal people.
Seminar
At a state-level seminar on Tribal Forest and Land Rights, organised by Village Reconstruction and Development Project (VRDP) here recently, speakers including N. Markandan, Former Vice-chancellor of Gandhigram University; Udhayakumar, Assistant Professor, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, and A. Renganathan, Director, VRDP, said that over 15 lakh beneficiaries belonging to tribal community were provided over 31 lakh hectares of land based on Forest Rights Act, 2006 across the country.
However, tribal people in Tamil Nadu did not receive any land so far, they said.
Restriction
Speakers said that forest officials were reluctant to provide the land citing restriction order issued by Madras High Court in Retired Forest officer Sambhasiva Rao case. They said that the State government did not take any steps to appeal against the order.
G.O.
Instead, the government issued an order preventing one lakh tribal community members from getting pattas.
