Sirsi : The Department of Social Welfare has recently issued a directive to village panchayats in Uttar Kannada district, urging them to expedite the processing of pending forest rights applications. This new instruction aims to address the backlog of 20,158 unresolved applications.
The directive requires panchayats to complete and submit reports on all pending applications within a specified timeframe. This move follows a previous mandate from the Forest Rights Act State Level Stewardship Committee, which had instructed local forest rights committees to process pending applications within a week. Despite this, many applications remain unresolved due to delays and a lack of a formal appeal system.
Srinath Shetty, vice-president of Kulave Gram Panchayat, noted that many applications were rejected for missing documents, despite applicants having a long history of forest cultivation. Ravindra Nayka, President of the Forest Land Rights Fighters Forum, criticised the inefficiency of the village committees and the unclear guidelines for document verification.
Keshavamurthy Immadi, Assistant Director of the Social Welfare Department, emphasised the importance of timely reporting to resolve these applications and improve the forest rights process.
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