Bhubaneswar: Expressing severe dissatisfaction over the poor execution of Forest Rights Act (FRA)-2006 even after repeated instructions, Odisha State Food Commission (OSFC) has lashed out at the collectors asking them, “is this the way to respect the laws of the land?”
OSFC Chairperson Ranglal Jamuda has dashed off letters to all collectors in this regard. In his letter, Jamuda said, “It is extremely difficult to believe that even after 11 long years (2008 and onwards) the activities mandated under the FRA-2006 and the rules made there under could not be translated into action to safeguard the interest of the ST right holders.”
As per the letter, not a single title relating to the FRA has been distributed in Puri district while Kendrapara collector, who had given a written commitment to complete this task by December, 2017 has failed to do so.
The government has distributed 4, 15,522 titles under FRA so far. However, demarcation of vested land has been completed only in respect of 2, 52,527 titles, which is 60.77 per cent of the total titles only. Even, 2, 99,754 titles (72.13 per cent cases) correction of records (including maps) is yet to be done, he pointed out.
As per the earlier commitments, except eight districts (Jajpur, Malkangiri, Angul, Ganjam, Keonjhar, Nabarangpur, Sambalpur and Sundargarh), the entire exercise right from demarcation of land up to correction of RoRs (including maps) was to be completed by March end.
“It is very painful to note that as many as 18 districts did not honour their commitments and at this belated stage they have indicated revised deadlines. What is even more painful is the fact that four collectors (Koraput, Bargarh, Cuttack and Kendrapara) neither performed this task nor indicated any revised deadline to complete it,” the chairman said.
At a meeting held under the chairmanship of Revenue & Disaster Management minister in July 2017, it was decided to complete the task by December 2017. But, the decision was not taken seriously by the collectors.
Citing these examples, the Food Commission asked, “Is this the way to respect the laws of the land? Is this the way to carry out the government orders? Is this the way to promote food and nutritional security? Is this the way to serve the more vulnerable people who are still struggling to achieve freedom from hunger? Is this the way to promote ‘inclusive growth’ in our society?”
