Land given under Forest Land Act not to be sold: CM to beneficiaries

Margao: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday urged the beneficiaries of the Forest Rights Act not to sell their lands, as he said doing so would deprive their future generations of the entitlement while also upsetting the economics of the village.
“The land rights are given to you under the Forest Rights Act since you have a house on the land or have been traditionally cultivating the land. The land isn’t meant to be sold and you won’t be allowed to sell it. If the land is sold, and if outsiders come and stay there, it will ruin the economics of the place, and won’t benefit your future generations,” Sawant said at a function held to commemorate the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, a tribal freedom fighter from Jharkhand.
Sawant further said that while around 750 sanads have already been issued to claimants under the Forest Rights Act, the remaining 10,000 claims would be disposed of by the end of the current tenure of his government.
He further exhorted the tribal leaders, elected representatives and government officers to strive to ensure that 100% of the tribals in the state get all the rights they are entitled to. “Some of the tribals haven’t even obtained their tribes certificate. This prevents us from granting their entitlements to them,” Sawant said.
He also urged government officers to work on Saturdays and Sundays if needed to expedite the work of processing the claims and applications of the tribals under various government schemes.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar pitched for a memorial of the two tribal youth who lost their lives in the 2011 tribals’ agitation at Balli.