Khotigao gram sabha passed 335 Forest Rights Claims (FRC) cases in the special meeting held on Sunday.
According to Khotigao Sarpanch Anandu Dessai the Special Gramsabha held on Sunday saw the passing of 335 FRCs and they will be taken up for settlement.
Dessai informed that out of the total 641 claims on forest rights pending for a long period of time, 85 FRCs were settled in previous seatings. "However, there are few instances where two of more applications/cases were on one person's name. Only after completion of a proper scrutiny, the actual number of pending claims for FR cases will come to light," Dessai informed when asked about the reason for non-settling of all the cases today.
Incidentally, the special Gramsabha on Forest Rights Claims (FRCs) called on Sunday was attended by Canacona MLA and Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, Canacona Dy Collector & SDO Ramesh Gaonkar, Forest Rights Committee (FRC) Chairman Ashok Gaonkar besides Sarpanch Anandu Dessai, Dy Sarpanch Punam Gaonkar, some panch members and Panchayat Secretary Datta Velip were present.
Incidentally, while most of the claimants were present a few claimants and some of the FRC members however skipped the gram sabha, objecting to the non-following of proper procedure to call the meeting, besides the presence of politicians.
"The FRC committee having 15 members, and according to the procedure, gram sabha on claims for Forest Rights has to be called by Panchayat Secretary, which is first flaw and there should be no involvement of politicians at the Forest Rights Claims settlement Gramsabha," informed Khotigao Ex-sarpanch Umesh alia Daya Gaonkar.
‘’We want the claims of the forest dwellers to be given at the earliest possible, but the FRC should properly examine the claims first and also should take care to follow the official procedure properly. I as a FRC Chairman after following the procedure had settled 9 FR claims in 2015 and procedures are going on to examine the rest of the cases in a time frame manner. But, since I also occupied the Chair of Sarpanch of the village, I was asked to vacate my Chairmanship of FRC, stating politicians cannot be part of settlement for Forest Rights Claims, and after I gave up the chairmanship, the forest claims lagged behind."
Gaonkar further informed that on Sunday, he and at least 4 others (to his knowledge) had not attended the Special Gram sabha as it was not convened properly, and besides, we learnt about the presence of politicians at the special gramsabha. Besides, Daya Gaonkar, the others who have not attended Sunday's special gramsabha on Forest Rights Claims were FRC members Devidas Gaonkar, Anand Dessai, Meena Gaonkar, Putu Gaonkar, while one member (Vaishnavi) is late and no appointment in her place."
Devidas Gaonakar when contacted informed that Sunday’s gram sabha is illegal and he had skipped it not to be a part of decisions taken on political directions.
"Previously, even a sitting sarpanch was not allowed to be part of FRC meeting, now how can a sarpanch instead of Panchayat Secretary calls out a Special gram sabha on FRC and a politician can chair that special gram sabha? What if, some of the claimants of forest rights complain about this illegality, then whatever decisions taken will go to dust? Incidentally another FRC member claimed that FR claims are being taken up in gram sabha meeting without even doing proper demarcations.
