Shivamogga Lok Sabha member from BJP B Y Raghavendra on Wednesday urged the Centre to de-notify forest land cultivated by the thousands of families, who were displaced during the Sharavathi hydropower project, in Shivamogga district.
The displaced families due Sharavathi hydropower project have been cultivating forest lands in 31 different forest areas in the Shivamogga district. However, cultivating farmers' names were not entered in the revenue records since 1959. These were farmers belonging to Ediga Community, other backward castes & SC/ST communities, he said in Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.
"Before existing Forest Conservation Act -1980, it was to be done and the land could de-notified. But it was not done due to the gross negligence of the then government. As a result, these farmers are not getting any benefits from PM Kisan Yojana or any schemes of the government. Even long pending demand of these thousands of farmers title deeds for their lands is not fulfilled till today," he said.
After the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 came into force the de-notification of the forest land can be done only by the Union government. Therefore now the Union government may seek a detailed proposal from Karnataka and take appropriate measures to ensure granting land rights to cultivators, he said.
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