Govt plans to distribute lands to tribal people for cultivation

Amaravati: The State government is contemplating to give rights to the forest lands to the tribal people living in the Forest areas.

It is estimated that around 77,000 tribals have applied for the lands under the Forests Rights Act 2006. Under the Act, the government can give a maximum of 10 acres to a tribal family living in the forest area. The land can be utilized by the tribal people for their livelihood. 1.57 lakhs of acres land is required to distribute the 77,000 tribals. The officials informed that still some of the tribal people may apply for the lands.

The Deputy Chief Minister (Tribal) P Pushpa Sreevani and Minister for Forest Balineni Srinivasa Reddy conducted a review meeting on the distribution of the forest lands, with the concerned officials on Wednesday at Secretariat. Both the ministers directed the officials to complete the procedure for providing lands to all the beneficiaries.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been giving highest priority to the distribution of these lands to the tribals, informed the ministers and urged the officials to prepare plans according to that.

Coordination between tribal, revenue and forest departments is essential for finalizing the land allocation and distribution procedure. Hence, the ministers directed these three departmental officials to cooperate and coordinate with each other.

Balineni warned the officials that some of them were not delivering the things promptly. He said that the government will take action on such adamant officials.

Pushpa Sreevani said that the distribution of lands to the tribals is in the election manifesto and chief minister was very particular on it. She asked the officials to bring any problems to the government in implementing the scheme.