Govt depriving Girijans of their right on forest land: Congress

Hyderabad: Congress on Saturday accused the State government of not giving right of tribals on forest lands.

Congress MP & former TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the TRS government was not implementing the Forest Rights Act, 2006 enacted by then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to grant ownership rights to Girijans on forest lands. He said the TRS government was using the term 'Podu' lands to deprive Girijans of their rights on forest land and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was not honouring a law passed by Parliament.

Addressing a round-table meeting, chaired by former MLC B Ramulu Naik, on the issue held at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday, Uttam said, "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 govt, 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 said.

Reddy said there was no place in the law for the formation of district committee to address the podu land issue. The Congress approached the High Court and got a stay on the GO to stop its implementation, he said. The Congress MP said instead of calling 'Podu' lands, they should be referred to as forest lands and their rights should be awarded to eligible Girijans. By using twisted terminology, KCR govt was facilitating illegal encroachment on forest lands by TRS leaders while snatching away the lands given by the previous Congress govt to poor eligible Girijans. He said innocent Girijans were implicated in false cases when they claimed their rights on forest land as per the law.