Silvester D’Souza

Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (MS)

Kundapur, Dec 14: MP Raghavendra drew the attention of speaker and other ministers in the parliament in order to make suitable amendment to the act to provide land to forest dwellers who are residing for at least years in forests.

Raghavendra said, “The STs and other tribes living in the forest area for generations are not able to get their rights. The main aim of my speech was to prevent the meddling of the forest officials.

“All scheduled tribes and communities will get sanctions as per the act of December 13, 2005 abiding by the conditions of forest form. At least three generations of evidence needs to be provided for the purpose.

“More than 50 percent of land in Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency is made up of forests. Main area of Western Ghats falls under my constituency. More than 1000 villages and remote areas are there. According to the statistics of Karnataka government 1.89 lac applications for rights are rejected out of 2.94 lac. In my constituency alone 97075 applications are received and 32245 are rejected. The rejections are more as the residents of these remote areas are not able to provide the evidence of three generations of them staying in forests,” he said.

Raghavendra appealed to the union minister of scheduled tribes and communities to look into the matter and bring suitable amendment to give land rights to forest dwellers.