Transfer of forest land title to ‘deprived’ legal heir soon

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh govt has devised an action plan for transferring land ownership for thousands of tribals and forest dwellers living as “dispossessed” descendants after the death of their forefathers or parents, who were allotted individual title deeds.

First time in the country, an initiative is being taken when the procedures have been formulated and notified in the official gazette on how the descendants can conveniently acquire the forest land ownership, the officials said.

The measure will enable thousands of needy tribal families to access benefits of various government welfare schemes.

Section 4 (1) of Forest Rights Act (FRA) mentions that land ownership in case of death will be transferred but there was no provision in the FRA rules regarding the process of transfer of name or demarcation of occupied forest land to lawful heir in case of death of individual forest rights holder.

A decision was taken by the Vishnu Deo Sai government to safeguard the interest of the deserving beneficiaries. “Under the leadership of CM Vishnu Deo Sai and tribal development minister Ram Vichar Netam, a comprehensive line of action has been chalked out to adopt practices on changing names of forest land ownership, demarcation, division and correction of errors.

The ST-SC welfare department is a nodal agency that is coordinating with the departments of revenue and forest”, Sonmoni Borah, principal secretary, ST-SC development department told this newspaper.

According to the new stipulated rules, in the case of death of person holding forest land deed under individual occupation for habitation or self-cultivation, the application can be moved by a descendant to range officer of forest department and tehsildar giving declaration, death certificate, Aadhaar card, contact number for review verification as necessary action to modify the entry on FR entitlements.

There are thousands of tribals who were deprived of forest land ownership of their departed forebears for want of effective norms or guidelines in the FRA. The government has kept the procedure simple and one can apply with a self attested application without any need of notarised stamp papers.