Chennai: Even as the political parties are vying with each other to take credit for inclusion of Narikuravar community in ST list, the issue of non-issuance of single patta to tribal people under the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the state has no takers.
Despite Supreme Court lifting the eight-year-old stay of Madras HC restricting the state from issuing patta to the beneficiaries on February 1 this year, the state government is yet to begin the process of handing over the land rights to shortlisted forest dwellers.
According to the Union forest ministry, till date approximately 44.12 lakh claims have been filed and more than 17.10 lakh titles have been distributed in the various states with the exception of the Tamil Nadu, where the implementation of FRA has been at a standstill thus far.
Though Tamil Nadu have received 21,781 claims and 3,723 titles are ready for distribution, the state government had not been able to distribute the titles due to the HC stay. “We were forced to wait for eight years for the implementation of the Act in the state citing Madras high court stay. Even after the Supreme Court vacated the stay, the government is not showing keen interest to implement it,” says Tamil Nadu Tribals Association president and former CPI (M) legislator P. Dillibabu.
He said that the Act should have been implemented immediately but the government cited the election model code of conduct that came into effect from March 4. “We can understand that no new schemes or projects can be implemented when the code of conduct is in force.
There is no restriction on implementation of the existing scheme. After the SC order, we gave a petition to the chief secretary seeking speedy distribution of patta to the forest dwellers,” he said, accusing the AIADMK and DMK for the delay in implementation of the act in the state. Mr Dillibabu said that TN is the only state where there is a blanket ban on issuing patta to poromboke land in hilly areas.
