ST and SC development secretary Ranjan Chopra said the mission to provide land titles by 2024 was in the works and will be launched soon
In line with their objective to empower the tribal community in the state, the Odisha government is planning to give titles of individual and community forest land under the Forest Right Act to all eligible tribal people by 2024, a senior official of the state’s tribal welfare department said.
ST and SC development secretary Ranjan Chopra said the mission to provide land titles by 2024 was in the works and will be launched soon, under which tribal people will be all kinds of forest rights, whether individual, community or habitat.
“All tribals will be granted their rightful ownership. The mission is under scrutiny by the Finance and Planning and Convergence department. I think we will soon be able to launch the ambitious programme. By 2024, we will be able to achieve the mandate given to the state government under FRA,” said Chopra while speaking at a national consultation tribal development.
Chopra said that to ensure the mission achieves its target, the state has set up a dedicated project management unit for FRA implementation. “We not only want to do justice to our tribal communities, but are also trying to create a digital footprint so that this ownership of land is not lost in future,” she said.
According to the Forest Rights Act, a member of a Scheduled Tribe who has been residing in and using a piece of forest land since 2005, but does not have formal legal rights over it, is entitled to a land title. Non-tribal communities, known as Other Traditional Forest Dwellers, can also avail these rights but have to furnish proof that they have been residing on the forest land for three generations.
The push for 100 per cent land rights to tribal people in Odisha comes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, with the ruling Biju Janata Dal trying to stave off a challenge from the Bharatiya Janata Party that performed well in 2019 general elections by winning eight of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. Droupadi Murmu, BJP’s Presidential candidate, is also from Odisha, which the party hopes will boost its support base from a large tribal catchment in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
As of today, Odisha leads all states in the country in granting individual forest rights titles with 452,000 beneficiaries, with Chhattisgarh coming a close second with 446,000. In land titles for community forest rights, Chhattisgarh is way ahead of other states with 45,000 titles. However, Odisha has among the lowest rejection rates in claims under forest rights, with 20 per cent of the claims turned down, compared to 51 per cent of Madhya Pradesh, 44 per cent of Chhattisgarh and 25 per cent of Jharkhand.
“The journey which started in 2006 will hopefully conclude on a happy note by 2024,” said Chopra, indicating that 8 per cent of the pending claims will be resolved by then. The secretary said the state government set a target of converting 587 forest villages into revenue villages, of which only 15 forest villages have been recognised as such yet.
“All old records of rights (land pattas) have been digitised and the future pattas will also be digitised. A dedicated website has been hosted to keep all records. The whole process of demarcation of land and reaching out to the last citizen has been facilitated by non-government organsiation partners,” the secretary said.
Manoj Bapana, director at the Union ministry of tribal affairs, said that so far 44.29 lakh claims for forest titles have been received from different states, of 22.34 lakh have been approved. In total, over 150 lakh acres of land have been recognised; 38,92,431 claims, which is a little over 87%, have been disposed of.
