Social welfare dept ushers in hope for 2.15 lakh forest dwellers

Mysuru: It has been a singularly torrid summer this year in South Interior Karnataka, with the relieving summer rain being a notorious truant. However, for more than two lakh members of various tribal communities, who dwell in the forest, it has been a rather bleak summer, the cloud of uncertainty looming large over their future. However, the Karnataka social welfare department has kindled new hope among the tribals, who were confronted with the prospect of eviction. The social welfare department has set June 30 as the deadline for officials of the local administration for reviewing all the rejected applications.
Highlighting the need to ensure an order foregrounded in natural justice, the 48-page circular has asked the authorities concerned to reconsider all applications, besides instructing them to document inspection of the disputed properties on video.
The Karnataka State Tribal Research Institute conducted a day-long meeting at the Administrative Training Institute for its officials in the city on Saturday.
Prabha BS, project coordinator for the integrated tribal development project, told TOI, “We decided that all the rejected applications must be reviewed again. In Mysuru alone, 6,549 applications have been rejected under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition and Forest Rights) Act, 2006. All of them will be reviewed again.”
On the procedure that would be adopted for the review process, Prabha added, “Well, let us say an application has been rejected by the officials of the gram panchayat. Then, this will be reconsidered at the same level. The process is the same for applications submitted at the division level, et al.”