Odisha retains the top position in implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 and has become a pioneering State in convergence of the FRA with other poverty alleviation schemes, claimed an official release.
This was known from the review meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a videoconferencing from Delhi in which Chief Secretary AP Padhi and SC and ST Development Secretary Surendra Kumar joined.
It was revealed that Odisha topped the list at national level both in terms of the number of title rights distributed and the percentage of titles distributed over the number of claims. The State also pioneered in convergence of poverty eradication schemes with FRA for enhancing livelihood options of the FRA beneficiaries.
Kumar appraised that till June-end about 4,06,745 individual family titles and 5,942 community rights involving an area of about 6,09,553 acres and 3,27,171 acres, respectively, were distributed under the Act. This included 18,402 individual title certificates distributed to the particularly vulnerable trial group ( PVTG) families involving area of around 31,233 acres. These PVTG families are presently residing in 17 micro project areas of the State under which they have been also covered under various schemes.
The claim rejection ratio in Odisha is less than that of national average. The rejection rate in Odisha is around 24 per cent against the national rate of around 45 per cent.
It was also revealed that more than 2,30,000 beneficiaries have been covered under various schemes like Mo Kudia, IAY, Mo Pokhari, land development under MGNREGS, National Bamboo Mission, National Horticulture Mission and marketing of minor forest produces. While around 1,49,327 households have been provided IAY houses, 3,818 provided houses under Mo Kudia, 3,549 included in Mo Pokhari, 54,099 covered under land development with support from MGNREGS, 8,776 families covered under NHM, 286 families covered under the NBM and 13,228 households have been covered under various other programmes.