VAM urges govt to take FRA route to save small encroachers

The Van Adhikar Manch, fighting for rights of tribals, today urged the state government to take Forest Rights Act route to save people from dispossession from forest lands, terming it as the only legally tenable option.
"The Himachal Pradesh government has made its intentions clear about protecting the small encroachers on forest land but there is nothing on ground so far.
"Implementation needs serious ground work for which officials and forest rights committees have to be properly trained and motivated," the Manch said in a statement.
While the state government has made clear its intention to fast track the implementation of FRA in tribal and non-tribal areas of the state, it is important to keep in mind that on ground its performance has been dismal.

Himachal Pradesh is one of the 7 states that have lagged behind in implementation of the FRA, with negligent number of approved claims after 8 years of passing of the Act, the statement said.
The Manch alleged that FRCs and Ground Officials are clueless about its process and objective and if the claim of the government about 16,707 forest right committees having been constituted is correct, most of these FRCs are unaware of the purpose of their creation.
The ground officials, especially, the Panchayat Secretaries responsible to train people, are clueless about the objective of the FRC and the FRA and in most areas, people have not being given the process for filing the individual and community claims, it alleged.