Tribal Affairs Deptt holds awareness camp on implementation of Forest Rights Act

Tribal Affairs Department officers during awareness camp.
Tribal Affairs Department officers during awareness camp.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 14: The Tribal Affairs Department today organized one day seminar cum awareness camp at Chowadi to educate the Tribal Community regarding implementation of Forest Rights Act.
Secretary, Tribal Affairs Department, Rehana Batool was the chief guest on the occasion.
District Development Council members, Block Development Council Chairman, Sarpanchs and Panchs besides other prominent community representatives of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Poonch, Kishtwar and Reasi districts participated in the event.
Secretary highlighted various initiatives taken up by the Government for effective implementation of Forest Rights Act in Jammu and Kashmir. She informed the gathering that State, District, Sub Divisional and Panchayat level officers and officials and other stakeholders including FRA Committees had already been trained for implementation of FRA. She further apprised that Forest Rights Act Committee shall receive the claims from 15th of January, 2021 and the department is in process of translating FRA in local languages so that the community can easily understand the Act, rules and guidelines.
Director Tribal Affairs, Mohammad Saleem Malik, emphasized upon the community representatives to educate the common masses about implementation of the Act.
Various speakers highlighted various aspects of implementation of FRA in the UT.
Javed Rahi, prominent educationist, writer and scholar highlighted the importance and detailed introduction about the implementation of Forest Rights Act, Rules and guidelines. He also replied various queries raised by the participants in the seminar.
Other speakers who spoke on the occasion were Syed Ali Choudhary, Advocate Karam Din Chopra, Talib Famda, Yasir Choudhary, Koshal Choudhary and Ali Mohammad Chechi.