A state level workshop was organized at the auditorium of Project Bhawan, Ranchi with the objective of speeding up the compliance of Forest Rights Act 2006 in State. Addressing the workshop organized by the Welfare Department, the Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Revenue Department, L. Khiangte said that forest dependent communities have a co-existence relationship with forests. Forest dependent communities have been playing their role for centuries in conservation, promotion and maintaining biodiversity.
In Jharkhand, the process of giving rights to forest dependent communities under this law is going on. In terms of statistics, individual and community forest lease in Jharkhand is less than the neighbouring states Chhattisgarh and Orissa, but the government is working in this direction with a commitment to give more rights to forest dependent communities.
Khiangte also said that there is a collective responsibility of many departments and civil society including Forest, Revenue, Welfare, Panchayati Raj and today's workshop is an initiative towards motivating everyone.
In the beginning of the programme, Secretary, Welfare Department, KK Soan said that forest law has been implemented for 15 years and it is necessary for the all-round development of tribal and other forest dependent communities of Jharkhand. But after getting individual and collective rights, many programs of agriculture and livelihood like PM Kisan, PM Awas, beneficiaries of FRA can get the benefits of dozens of schemes. He said that today an initiative has been taken to reach out to all parties involved in this Act to address the issues and challenges associated with the claim creation process. He said that in the workshop, the draft Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) was thoroughly discussed with the Revenue, Forest, Civil Societies.
He also mentioned the need to record the names of the beneficiaries of FRA in the state in the Record of Rights. On this occasion, a presentation of the team of the Welfare Department to Chhattisgarh and Orissa was made.
Ajay Nath Jha, Additional Secretary, Welfare Department said that Chhattisgarh is less in comparison to the population but more than 8 lakh individual pattas have been given there. Keeping the experiences of Orissa, Additional Secretary, Welfare Department, Ravi Ranjan Mishra said that more than 3 lakh FRA beneficiaries have been linked to various livelihood programs. 145 FRA cells have been set up in Orissa who are successfully providing technical assistance to forest dependent communities.
On behalf of the Jharkhand Forest Rights Forum, Father George Monipali presented the draft of the SOP. Representatives from different districts including Forest, Revenue and Panchayati Raj Departments presented their views on this draft. In today's program, MGNREGA Commissioner B. Rajeshwari, Director of TRI Ranendra Kumar, RCCF Ravi Ranjan, DFO Mamta Priyadarshini, Dilip Yadav, J. P. Sharma, DWO of Ramgarh, Ranchi, Gumla and Khunti, JHAMCO FAD, JHASCO LAMP, Agriculture, MGNREGA cell, dozens of officials of Panchayati Raj were present. On behalf of Civil Society, Jonson Topno, Binju Abraham, Sudhir Pal and others were present.