Hyderabad, Oct 15: Telangana Congress decided to intensify the agitation seeking rights for Girijans on forest lands. MP and former TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the TRS Government was not implementing the Forest Rights Act, 2006 enacted by then Congress-led UPA Govt at the Centre to grant ownership rights to Girijans on forest lands. He said that the TRS Govt was using the term ‘Podu’ lands to deprive Girijans of their rights on Forest land. He said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was not honouring a law passed by the Parliament.
Uttam was addressing a round-table meeting, chaired by former MLC B. Ramulu Naik, on the issue held at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday. He said that the previous Congress Govt enacted the Forest Rights Act in 2006 to grant rights on forest land to the Girijans. It was effectively implemented.
“While Congress government gave about 3 lakh acres land to about one lakh Girijan beneficiaries, KCR Sarkar is taking away their lands. In 2014, a total of 1,16,256 applications for 4,88,518 acres were pending. However, the present official data shows that the individual claims resolved up to 30th June 2022 were 97,536 for 3,10,916 Acres. This means that the TRS Govt, in the last eight years, did not give a single acre of forest land to the Girijans. Instead, it took away 18,655 Acres of forest land from 1,950 Girijans,” said MP Uttam Kumar Reddy.