A state-level forum of social organisations has urged the Himachal Pradesh government to implement Forest Rights Act to prevent the small encroachers being evicted from forest land in the wake of a high court order.
The Van Adhikar Manch appreciated the government's move to set up a high-powered committee to protect the interests of small encroachers in illegal of possession land upto 10 Bighas.
Implementation of FRA, 2006 was the only viable and legally tenable solution to provide relief to those who had years of "occupations" on forest land for their bonafide livelihood needs, it said in a petition to the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, provides much needed relief to those who had years of "occupations" on forest land for their bonafide livelihood and demanded that the FRA, 2006 be implemented in letter and spirit and the guidelines issued in 2015, in contravention of the Act be withdrawn immediately.
"Thegovernment's move to 'regularise' forest occupation, initiated in 2002,was legally untenable and any effort to protect the small encroachers on the same lines would not stand scrutiny of law and as such implementation of FRA was the only option to provide relief to land occupants facing the threat of eviction," theManch said.
Pointing at that FRA was neither meant to distribute land nor to regularise the encroachments but only provides legal title (heritable but no right of sale) to the individuals and communities over the access and usage of forest resources.
The Manch also demanded that the government should withdraw the eligibility guidelines under FRA 2006, which are in contravention of the law and urged that the matter be placed before the Cabinet and directions for withdrawal be issued as early as possible.
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