- विज्ञापन -
Shimla: People living on forest land in Himachal Pradesh will get forest rights leases under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, but will not have the right to sell them. People will be able to earn their livelihood by farming, gardening and animal husbandry on this land. The government has started the process of giving leases. Claims will be sought in June and forest rights leases will be distributed in November. Those people will get land rights whose at least three generations have been living on forest land before 13 December 2005 and are dependent on forest land for livelihood. This month, guidelines will be given to the sub-division level, district level, village level forest rights committee, forest, revenue and Panchayati Raj department officials.
Claims will be invited by the Gram Sabha in June. The FRA claims will be inspected by the Forest Rights Committee members, forest and revenue officials and approved by the Gram Sabhas. The Gram Sabhas will send the approved claims to the sub-division level committee. In July, the sub-division level committees will review the claims and maps and send the incomplete claims back to the Gram Sabha. The correct claims will be sent to the district-level committee. Claims received from the state level committee will be examined in August.
Claims in which documents are not complete will be sent to the state-level monitoring committee. The process of issuing forest rights leases will be started for the approved claims and entries will be made in the revenue records. In September, new or pending claims will be re-examined and verified claims will be sent to the committee. In October, the second phase of claims will be examined and approved and valid claims will be presented before the district level committee. In November, the district committee will approve and review the remaining claims. Forest rights leases will be given after the process is completed.
FRA app and FRA helpline number will be released for application. Along with this, FRA weeks will also be determined, so that the verification and processing of claims can be expedited. In 2006, during the UPA government at the Center, the Forest Rights Act got the President’s approval and the rule was implemented from January 1, 2008.
