Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Neelkant Tekam raised the issue of illegal distribution of community land rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA)-2006 through a call attention motion in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly on Thursday. BJP MLA Neelkanth Tekam said that the community land rights were provided under the FRA-2006 by violating rules because of it, disputes are arising at many places. Some Gram Sabhas have been allotted too little forest land and some Gram Sabhas have been allotted too much forest land arbitrarily.

 

The villagers have not been taken into confidence regarding the distribution of community land rights and fake Gram Sabhas were organised in Machkot of Bastar region and remote area of Surguja and forest lands were allotted in a fraudulent manner, said MLA Tekam. He demanded the Minister to send a team of officers to address disputes among the villagers in Kondagaon district. In his reply, Tribal Welfare Department Minister Ramvichar Netam denied that the rules were violated in distributions of community land rights under the FRA-2006. All the procedures were followed before distribution of the community land rights, he added. On the demand of the MLA, Tribal Welfare Minister Tekam said that he would instruct the officers to resolve the disputes among villagers through mutual consent at Machkot of Bastar region.