DLC clears 48 claims under FRA in Rajouri Deputy Commissioner urged upon the community to preserve the green gold

RAJOURI, OCTOBER 21: District Level Committee which met under the chairmanship of the District Collector Rajouri, Rajesh K Shavan today cleared 48 claims under Forest Right Act here in a meeting held in the Conference Hall of the PWD Dak Bungalow.

Among the others, ADDC, Pawan Kumar; DFO Rajouri, Arshdeep Singh; DFO Nowshera, Neelima; ADC Rajouri, Sachin Dev Singh; ADC Sunderbani, Vinod Kumar Behnal; ADC Nowshera, Sukhdev Singh Sambayal; ADC Kalakote, Krishan Lal; ADC Koteranka, Surinder Mohan Sharma; AC Defence, Saleem Quershi besides other concerned members of the DLC attended the meeting.

After a threadbare discussion and scrutiny of all the claims put up in the meeting, the committee settled 48 cases of FRA cleared conferring right over 562 families and more than 3300 population. The rights included the right of grazing, pathways, religious places and schools built over forest land. As many as 82 cases have been returned for completion of papers and other more cases are under scrutiny.

While deliberating upon the issue, the DC has impressed upon the Forest, Revenue and RDD Officers to go for the mapping of the entire area Suo Motto so that not even a single case is left over.

He said that in the coming days in future, it will resolve all the conflicts and disputes of the community with the forest officials and settle the issue of the title once for all. He further said that it is high time now to apprise and awaken the local panchayats about their duty to conserve and preserve the forest cover.

DC said that it is not only conferring rights over them but also making them partners in the forest development process where the forest can’t be conserved and developed without community participation.

“On one side, these rights are being settled and on the other side, a great responsibility lies upon the community of the nearby villages to protect their forest cover”, the DC said.

He also said that conferring rights by this act, is not only giving rights but the duty to the community to realise the importance of conservation of forests.

The next DLC meeting is scheduled to be convened on Tuesday and the DC has given specific targets to the concerned committee members for the coverage of eligible beneficiaries under the Act.

He also took a serious note of the absence of some senior officers in the DLC meeting and sought explanation from them.