Raji community seeks conversion of forest lease of their lands into revenue lease
Raji community seeks conversion of forest lease of their lands into revenue lease
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, May 6
The Ban Raji community members from villages of Kuta Chaurani, Madanpuri, Kantoli, Kulekh and Aultari, have demanded to convert their forest leases, given to them under Forest Rights Act 2006, into revenue leases, so they could get full ownership of leased land and be counted as land owners.
The community that has been mentioned as PVTG( particularly vulnerable tribal group) by UNESCO along with Buksa community in Uttarakhand, has said that they are suffering from problems of basic facilities and livelihood due to lack of several documents related to land ownership. “Particularly, we are not getting approval of government schemes despite being forest dwellers and we cannot have our panchayat forest due to lack of essential land documents,” said Digar Singh, a resident of Kuta Chaurani village of Raji community.
These issues came up at a programme organised by ‘Arpan’, an NGO, which is fighting for basic rights of Raji community from last 16 years.
“We demand all the forest leases, given to Raji families, be converted into revenue rights so that they get all the facilities as enjoyed by general farmer or villagers,” said Renu Thakur, Director of ‘Arpan’.
Pithoragarh District Social Welfare Officer Dilip Kumar has said that over 83 Raji families have been given land leased under Forest Rights Act 2006, but these have not been converted into revenue leases.” Despite the forest leases of the community not been converted into revenue leases, they are being provided all facilities of housing, ration and benefits of all government schemes for poor and even we have included them under ‘Kisan Samman Nidhi’, a scheme of union government,” said the social welfare officer Pithoragarh.
He further said that the matter of converting forest leases into revenue leases is pending with the state government. “The process to convert these leases is pending at a higher level,” said social welfare officer.
According to Renu Thakur, the director of ‘Arpan’, only the 10 percent Raji community families have revenue land granted to them before Forest Rights Act, 2006 came into existence.
