9 lakh acres of forest land to be distributed

KHAMMAM: Nine lakh acres of forest land would be distributed to tribal communities in line with the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwelling Castes ( Recognition of forest rights ) Act, 2006, according to Minister for Tribal Welfare D. S. Redya Naik here on Thursday.

Reviewing the implementation of the Remote and Interior Area Development (RIAD) Programme with the district officials here he said over three lakh claims received in the State were under consideration of the forest rights committees constituted at the various levels for the implementation of the act in the State.

He said some 62,637 claims were received in the 350 forest villages staking claim for 2.53 lakh acres in Khammam district and the claims were all processed by 367 forest rights committees. In all 1, 570 claims pertaining to 4,700 acres of land were already approved by the committees.

In all 144 surveyors, 350 mobilisers and 32 other personnel were involved in the exercise taken up for processing the claims in the district.

He wanted the officials to gear up for completing the process latest by October 30.

He said the Government had allocated Rs. 20 crore for processing the claims and distributing the forest land to the tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers.

He explained that 137 villages and 516 habitations were identified in Khammam for providing basic amenities under the RIAD.

Khammam would get a share of Rs. 2 crore out of Rs. 87 crore allocated by the government for implementation of RIAD in the State. He reviewed the progress of the RIAD activities taken up by the various departments in the district on Thursday.

He wanted the officials to step up the pace of the programme implementation in the district.

Collector Shashibhusan Kumar, Conservator of Forests S. M. Selva Raj, ITDA Project Officer Budhaprakash Jyothi were among those who took part in the review.