Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has directed the officials concerned to constitute forest rights committees with sarpanches, panchayat secretaries, local people’s representatives and others at the village-level.
These committee would create awareness among the people and receive claims from tribals and others for podu cultivation starting November 8. The villagers should however agree that there would be no further encroachment into forest lands. Similar committees should be constituted at division and district levels and the district administrations on their part should prepare and submit action plans in this direction.
The Chief Secretary made this remarks during a meeting with Revenue and Forest departments officials convened to resolve podu lands issues in line with the instructions given by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. He discussed about the procedure that should be followed for accepting the claims and the way the scrutiny of these applications should be conducted.
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He suggested that special officers be appointed in the districts where there were large number of cases pertaining to podu lands. Senior Forest officials should be appointed in the districts where there was large extent of podu lands. The entire process should be done in a transparent manner without giving scope for any controversies, he added.