Verify 19.5 lakh forest land claims: Centre to states

NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked state governments to carry out a village-level scrutiny of 19.50 lakh claims of land ownership under the Forest Rights Act 2006, which have been rejected by the states, to establish the exact number of persons with rejected claims. After a thorough de-duplication exercise to be carried out within 15 days, the states have also been asked to provide details of the exact number of persons who face eviction once the final number of rejected claims is established.
A meeting was called in the wake of the Supreme Court last week staying its February 13 order on eviction of tribals and other forest dwellers whose claims to land ownership under the Forest Rights Act have been rejected. States have been asked to file their affidavits by July 10.

In keeping with the SC order, states have also been informed that only claims rejected at the district level, delivered through a speaking order and conveyed through written communication will be considered as such. Claims rejected at village and sub division level will not be considered as final.

The directions to the states came at a meeting of secretary in the ministry of tribal affairs (MoTA) Deepak Khandekar with officials from around 25 states. Khandekar shared that as per states around 40.50 lakh claims for land ownership were filed under FRA. “Of these about 18.50 have been granted land pattas (ownership rights). Of the remaining 22 lakh claims about 2.50 lakh are either pending or under process. So, we have sought that the states verify the 19.50 lakh claims that are cited to have been rejected. This is important to establish how many persons are rejected at the district level ,” he said.

“It is important to understand that a claim does not add up to one person. There can be more than one claim filed by a single person. Also every rejected person does not necessarily join the eviction list. For instance, if a husband and wife have filed the same claim, one may be rejected,” he explained.

The Centre had pleaded before the SC on February 28 to withhold its February 13 order which would have led to eviction of an estimated 11.8 lakh tribals and other traditional forest-dwellers (numbers as per affidavits filed by states in the court). The Centre asserted that claims of the forest-dwellers were rejected in a summary manner and the affected persons had no wherewithal to defend their rights.

While the ministry of tribal affairs has set a 15-day time-line, states are learnt to have shared their concern that the ground level verification may slow down in view of the deployment of staff for election duty in view of the Lok Sabha polls ahead.