Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on November 6 launched a campaign to expedite the distribution of forest right titles among tribals and other traditional forest dwellers in every panchayat of the state.
Under the 'Abua Bir Dishom' campaign, the government has set a target to provide community forest rights (CFR) titles to 10,000 villages, individual forest rights (IFR) to around one lakh families and dispose of 20,679 pending claims. The implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 commenced in 2008 but around 60,000 titles as IFR and 2,000 titles as CFR were distributed so far in the state, an official said.
Around 15 lakh tribal and other traditional forest-dependent families will be included in the campaign, which will help fight migration, human trafficking, unemployment, and other social, economic and cultural challenges, he said.
The Act recognises the rights of the forest-dwelling tribal communities and others to forest resources, on which these communities were dependent for a variety of needs, including livelihood, habitation and other socio-cultural purposes. I feel that the first work that should have been done after the creation of Jharkhand is now starting. The majority of the population here is associated with forests and farming. It has been years since the Forest Rights Act was enacted, but this subject was never given special attention before. Perhaps this is the reason why a campaign is being launched to provide titles for forest rights, the chief minister said.
Soren directed the deputy commissioners and divisional forest officers, who participated in the launch, to take the initiative seriously and implement it at the earliest. I have a special focus on the campaign and will be monitoring its progress intensively, he said.
The chief minister held officials responsible for the "slow" progress of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the state. "Look at the other states where the number of tribals is less but there is sufficient distribution of forest right titles under the Act….It is not that you do not have the ability. We have done a lot of work together successfully. Therefore, your attention is also required for the campaign, Soren told officials.
For a successful implementation of the mission, a website and a mobile application have also been prepared to keep track of the distribution of forest rights titles among the tribal and non-tribal forest dwellers.
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