Claims of 89 landless Pong Dam oustees accepted in Dehra
There is a ray of hope for landless Pong Dam oustees residing on forestland in the Dehra Assembly constituency. The subdivision-level committee headed by Dehra SDM Shilpi Beakta has approved the claims of 89 oustees residing on forestland under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
Shilpi told The Tribune that the subdivision-level committee had accepted the claims of 89 oustees residing on forestland in Dehra for the purpose. The claims would be sent to the district-level committee headed by the Kangra Deputy Commissioner in a day or two. Once the district-level committee approves the claims, titles under the FRA would be allocated to the landless dam oustees, she added.
She said that other landless dam oustees residing on forestland in Dehra had been asked to submit their claims for settlement till February 28. Sources said that after the district-level committee accepts the claims of the oustees, they would be allocated titles for the use of forestland on which they had been residing for the past many decades. This would give them the legal right over the land that they had allegedly encroached upon.
The sources said that the cases of the oustees had been processed on the insistence of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Though the cases of the oustees in Dehra were approved in the past two years, no community or individual rights ‘patta’ had been provided in other parts of Kangra district. As many as 350 applications for forest rights were pending with the subdivision-level committees and the district-level committees under Section 3 (2) of the Forest Rights Act and the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) in Kangra district for the grant of rights. Migratory shepherds and farmers had moved the application.
Akshay Jasrotia, state adviser for the Ghamantu Pashu Sabha, an organisation of migratory shepherds, said that around 1.5 lakh families in the state were directly dependent on forestland of around one acre to five acres. They were mainly Dalits, poor and had an ordinary background. They were now facing the threat of eviction.
These families, which come under the category of Traditional Forest Dwellers and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFD) under the FRA, were being evicted one by one. Under the FRA, all eligible families could be provided protection by providing them with the ‘patta’ of individual rights.
Jasrotia said that more than one lakh families in the state were engaged in animal husbandry and over 60 per cent of them were earning their livelihood as nomadic animal herders. The income of these families was dependent on open grazing. The pastures on which open grazing was happening as per the seasonal cycle had been declared as national parks or wildlife sanctuaries by the Forest Department by planting trees, thereby forcibly denying the rights to stopover, water places, paths, grazing areas to animal herders. The FRA provides all above rights to the claimants for livelihood in any type of forest area, national park or wildlife area. All these families could be provided security by strengthening their economy by providing them with the ‘patta’ of collective rights under the FRA.
Jasrotia said that the government should issue effective guidelines to all administrative officers of the state to implement the FRA.
- Land title to be allocated after dist panel nod
The subdivision-level committee has accepted the claims of 89 dam oustees residing on forestland in Dehra for the purpose
The claims will be sent to the district-level committee headed by the Kangra Deputy Commissioner in a day or two
Once the district-level committee approves the claims, titles under the FRA will be allocated to the landless oustees
This will give the oustees the legal right over the land that they had allegedly encroached upon
