Hyderabad: Congress MP & former Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday accused the TRS Government for not implementing the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 enacted by then Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre to grant ownership rights to Girijans on forest lands.
Reddy said that the TRS Government was using the term ‘Podu’ lands to deprive Girijans of their rights on Forest land.
He said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was not honouring a bill passed by the Parliament.
Addressing a round-table meeting, chaired by former MLC B. Ramulu Naik, on the issue at Gandhi Bhavan, the former TPCC President said that the Congress-led UPA government enacted the Forest Rights Act in 2006 to grant rights on forest land to the Girijans.
It was effectively implemented through various committees. When the Congress party was in power from 2004-2014, there were 1968 Forest Rights Committees, 9 District Level Committees, 33 Sub-Divisional Committees and one State Level Monitoring Committee.
Reddy informed that as many as 2,15,742 individual applications were received for rights on 8,18,090 acres of forest land. Till 2014, a total of 99,486 applications were resolved for 3,29,571 Acres.
“In 2014, a total of 1,16,256 applications for 4,88,518 acres were pending. However, the present official data shows that the individual claims resolved up to June 30, 2022 were 97,536 for 3,10,916 Acres.
This means that the TRS Government in the last eight years, did not give a single acre of forest land to the Girijans. Instead, it took away 18,655 Acres of forest land from 1,950 Girijans,” he alleged.
The senior congress leader said that the TRS Government issued a GO September 11, 2022 to constitute District Coordination Committees headed by Incharge District Minister for lands under Podu cultivation.
“There is no place in the law for the formation of such a committee. Therefore, the Congress party approached the High Court and got a stay on the GO to stop its implementation,” he said.
The Congress MP said that instead of calling ‘Podu’ lands, they should be referred to as Forest lands and their rights should be awarded to eligible Girijans.
Reddy advised the party leaders to organise a conference on Girijan issues in the Munugode Assembly constituency.
Senior leaders, including former PCC President V Hanumantha Rao, AICC Kisan Cell Vice President Kodanda Reddy, Mangilal Naik, AICC Program Implementation Committee Chairman Maheshwar Reddy and others also spoke.
