Amaravati: Government to distribute lands to tribals for cultivation

Amaravati: The state government is contemplating to give rights on 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 acre to a tribal family living in the forest area.

The land can be utilised by the tribal people for their livelihood. An extent of 1.57 lakh acre is required for distribution to 77,000 tribals. Officials said that still some of the tribal people may apply for the land.

Deputy Chief Minister (tribal welfare) P Pushpa Sreevani and forests minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy held a review meeting on distribution of forest lands with the officials concerned at the Secretariat on Wednesday.

Both the ministers directed the officials to complete the procedure for providing lands to all the beneficiaries.

The ministers said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had been giving highest priority to the distribution of lands to the tribals and urged the officials to prepare plans accordingly.

Coordination between tribal, revenue and forest departments is essential for finalising the land allocation and distribution procedure. Hence, the ministers directed the officials of these three departments to cooperate and coordinate with one another.

Forest minister Srinivasa Reddy warned the officials that some of them were not delivering promptly. He said that government would take action on such errant officials.

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