55,000 forest land pattas allotted in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Oct 30 : Ever since Orissa High Court vacated the stay order, nearly 55,000 forest land pattas have been allotted as per the Forest Land Rights Act 2006.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who chaired a high-level meeting on the progress of the allotment of land pattas to the tribals residing in the forest areas, asked the concerned officials to expedite the handing over of land pattas to the tribals.

As per the government review, so far 1.95 lakh applications for allotment of forest land pattas had been approved by the Palli Sabha and they were under consideration at various stages and would be resolved soon.

Till date, after the Orissa High Court vacated the stay order on August 12, 55,000 forest land pattas had been allotted of which 43,292 tribals in 15 districts had been included.

Majority of the tribals from Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Gajapati districts had been covered under the scheme.

At least 3,668 non-tribals were also allotted forest land patta during the last three months, official sources said.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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