Claims for forest land shall be verified by satellites

27-03-2010
Claims for forest land shall be verified by satellites
Gujarat Smachar
Briefly translated from Gujarati

Forest Rights Act is not being implemented non-allotment of land, in spite of giving proof of land occupancy since many years, injustice to tribals etc. complaints were done in the house by MLAs of easter belt of Gujarat state. In reply to such complaints Minister Shree Mangubhai Patel said that there is demand for land from tribals on which cultivation was never done before. So to find out the fact state Govt. has started getting settlite images of these land. He further informed the house that under Forest Land Act-2006, Govt. has so far received 1,86,000 applications of which 1,78,000 have been verified and 14,916 applicants have been given occupancy certificate. In refrence to complaint that only 10% applicants have been allotted land, he said that many application are incomplete and necessary queries are not fulfilled. He also stated that Govt. had declared Rs. 15,0000 crores for development of backward areas, of which Rs. 12938 crores have already been spent so far.