Modi government moves to own UPA’s flagship programme Forest Rights Act

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has moved to take ownership of Congress-led UPA’s flagship programme Forest Rights Act. The PMO has set a deadline of December 31 to all states to settle land right claims of forest dwellers that have been pending for years.

The ministry of tribal affairs has written to all states to settle claims pending before them and give land titles to deserving forest dwellers by December 31. So far, the states have received 44 lakh claims and have settled 86.64% claims.

According to sources, PMO has been unhappy over the implementation of Forest Rights Act, which gives forest dwellers right over land they have cultivated or lived on for generations. It has been keeping a hawk’s eye on the progress getting monthly progress report from the tribal affairs ministry.

The states have been asked to revisit the claims they had rejected, distribute pending land titles and wrap up the entire exercise by the end of the year. A senior official told ET, “The directive is to wrap up the exercise by December 31. The claims have been long pending and many states have not shown any interest in settling them. This is a major initiative which would benefit the tribal forest dwellers.”

Forest Rights Act was passed in 2006 and Congress-led UPA claims it as its major achievement. With this initiative, the Congress had hoped to retain its traditional votebank of scheduled tribes. The alacrity with which Modi government has been moving on a UPA initiative indicates an attempt to show progress on a floundering UPA flagship programme and reclaim it as BJP’s own.