Odisha retains 1st Position in FRA Implementation in 2015
Like Last Year, Odisha has retained its 1st position among other leading States of the country in implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006 during the current year . This has been discussed in the State Level Monitoring Committee meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Gokul Chandra Pati in secretariat conference hall last evening. Reviewing the progress, Chief Secretary has directed the Scheduled tribe & scheduled caste development department to bring up the FRA beneficiaries above poverty line through convergence of various poverty alleviation programmes being implemented through different departments. Chief Secretary has directed ITDA Project Directors to take the lead for this convergence in their respective areas. Project Directors of DRDAs have been directed to take the lead for convergence in non-ITDA areas.
Chief Secretary Sri Pati has also directed to design a special drive for settlement of community rights under FRA. It has been decided to prohibit activities by outsiders in the community right areas. Collectors have been advised to hold District Level Meetings on FRA regularly and prevent any fraudulent practice of occupying the reserve forest. Chief Secretary has advised to adopt Joint Forest Management approach in conservation and development of forest areas settled as community rights under FRA. The department of forest & environment has also issued guidelines to Divisional Forest Officers for incorporation of both individual and community rights settled under FRA, 2006 in the permanent registers maintained at the level of forest divisions.
After the meeting, Director ST Welfare Sri R. Raghuprasad said that so far 3,70,110 individual claims and 6,211 community claims have been approved by the district level committees of different districts. Out of those 3,44,581 individual claims over 5,46,386 acres of forest land and 5000 community claims over 1,79,663 acres have been settled in their favour. Following the earlier orders of the Chief Secretary, convergence of various programmes have been made in respect of 2,26,304 FRA beneficiaries. These beneficiaries have mostly been covered under IAY, Mo Kudia, Mo Pokhari, land development in MGNREGA, National Horticulture Mission, National Bamboo Mission etc. Chief Secretary has directed to institutionalize these convergence at district level for bring up these beneficiaries above poverty line.
Hon’ble MLA Sri Balbhadra Majhi, Principal Secretary Revenue & Disaster Management Dr Mona Sharma, Secretary SC & ST Development Sri Surendra Kumar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sri J.D. Sharma, Director Panchayati Raj Sri D.P Das, Director ST & SC Research Institute Sri Akhil Bihari Ota along with other members of the committee participated in the discussion.