Governor C P Radhakrishnan calls for time-bound implementation of Forest Rights Act

'The digitisation and scanning of forest rights claims should be completed. An online portal should be used for forest rights claims,' Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan said.

Mumbai: In order to implement the Forest Rights Act in a time-bound manner, pending claims of individual and collective forest rights should be settled immediately, Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan said.

“Also, the work of linking Aadhaar cards of forest rights beneficiaries, registration in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana besides other schemes should be completed by holding a special camps,” he said addressing a meeting of six divisional commissioners of the state and senior government officials at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai to review the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

The meeting was attended by Secretary of the Tribal Department Dr Vijay Waghmare, Secretary to the Governor Dr Prashant Naranware, Joint Secretary of the Tribal Development Department Machhindra Shelke, Commissioner of the Tribal Research and Training Institute Dr Rajendra Bharud, Divisional Commissioners Dr Vijay Suryavanshi (Kokan), Chandrakant Pulkundwar (Pune), Dr Praveen Gedam (Nashik), Dilip Gawde (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Shweta Singhal (Amravati) and Dr Madhavi Khode Chaware (Nagpur) and other senior officials.

"All the Divisional Commissioners should personally take care of the pending forest rights claims. Also, a progress report in this regard should be submitted to the Raj Bhavan every fifteen days. Special camps should be organised in tribal areas to settle these claims, as well as to issue Aadhaar cards to tribal citizens, including individual forest rights holders in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana," he said.

"The digitisation and scanning of forest rights claims should be completed. An online portal should be used for forest rights claims," he added. He also directed that action taken reports regarding the implementation of the Forest Rights Act should be submitted every fifteen days.

The Governor also said that all the collective forest rights management committees have not been formed in many districts. “These committees should be established within the next month. Guidelines should also be issued regarding the functioning of these committees as well as the collective forest conservation and management plan,” he added.

“The percentage of tribal students in higher education is low. Due to this, seats in this category remain vacant. To increase the percentage of tribal students in higher education, an initiative 'School Connect' will be implemented with the universities in the state. Through this, efforts will be made to increase the percentage of tribal students in higher education in schools. All the District Collectors should also visit Eklavya schools once a month, Shri. Radhakrishnan directed on this occasion,” Radhakrishan said.

“To improve the living standards of the tribals, a model tribal village should be established in every PESA district. These villages should have facilities like health centers, schools, bus facilities, adequate drinking water, small business centers, community halls etc. Also, necessary facilities should be provided to maintain good communication systems in the tribal areas, be said.

“Serious work should also be done on health problems like malnutrition, sickle cell anemia etc. in tribal areas. For this, emphasis should be placed on establishing health centers wherever necessary in tribal areas, appointing medical officers and staff there and increasing health facilities. He also suggested that the concept of mobile clinics (hospital on wheels) should be implemented in every district,” he added.