Bhubaneswar: September 01: Odisha retains its top position in implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The State also becomes a pioneering state in adoption of the convergence of FRA with other poverty alleviation schemes. This was known from the review taken by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Sri Narendra Damodardas Modi over a video conferencing from Delhi in which Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi participated from the conference hall of the State secretariat. Secretary Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Development Sri Surendra Kumar joined the Chief Secretary in this conference.
Review revealed that Odisha topped the list at national level both in terms of the number of title rights distributed and the percentage of titles distributed over the number of claims rose. The State also pioneered in convergence of various poverty eradication schemes with FRA for enhancing livelihood options of the FRA beneficiaries. These beneficiaries were also brought under social security and food security net.
Secretary Sri Surendra Kumar appraised that till end of June, 2017 about 4,06,745 individual family titles and 5,942 community rights involving an area of about 6,09,553 acres and 3,27,171 acres respectively were distributed under the Act. This included 18,402 individual title certificates distributed to the particularly vulnerable trial group ( PVTG) families involving area of around 31,233 acres. These PVTG families are presently residing in 17 micro project areas of the State under which they have been also covered under various schemes.
The claim rejection ratio in Odisha is less than that of national average. As per available information, the rejection rate in Odisha is around 24% against the national level rejection rate of around 45%. Odisha has adopted suo-motto appeal of all rejection cases. The cases rejected at village level are suo-motto taken to appeal for hearing and decision at Sub divisional level committee (SDC). Similarly, the cases rejected at the level of SDC are automatically taken up for appeal at District level committee (DLC) constituted under the Chairmanship of the Collector and District Magistrate. The decision of the DLC becomes final.
It may be pertinent here to mention that for enhancing productivity of the land distributed to FRA beneficiaries and for improving their livelihood options, Chief Secretary Sri Padhi had earlier directed the departments to cover these beneficiaries under various schemes through convergence at filed level. Accordingly, so far more than 2,30,000 beneficiaries have been covered under various schemes like mo kudia, IAY, Mo Pokhari, land development under MGNREGS, national bamboo mission, national horticulture mission, marketing of minor forest produces etc. As per the data available, around 1,49,327 households have been provided IAY, 3,818 have been provided Mo Kudia, 3549 households have been provided Mo Pokhari, 54,099 have been covered under land development with support from MGNREGS, 8.776 families have been covered under national horticulture mission, 286 families have been covered under bamboo mission, and 13,228 households have been covered under various other programmes.
