Jamguda (Kalahandi): Transit permit to villagers to procure and sell forest resources will create a revolution in the country as it is an important tool to empower tribal communities, stressed Unio

Tribal development must for curbing Naxal growth, says Jairam Ramesh

For the residents of this tiny non-descript village in Odisha’s Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region, it was a rare celebratory occasion on Sunday when they got back the rights that had been snatched away by the British rulers nearly a century ago. The official transit passbook for cultivation and harvest of bamboo was handed over to the Jamguda Gram Sabha by Orissa forest officials. Union Rural Development and Tribal Affairs Ministers Jairam Ramesh and Kishore Chandra Deo and Odisha Revenue minister Surjya Narayan Patra attended a Tribal Rights festival organised by the Gram Sabha to mark the event.

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said solution to internal security threat does not lie merely in weeding out Naxals in security operations.

Putting the heat on Government to withdraw operation Green Hunt, the Naxals have now opposed the Mendha-Lekha model which allowed Tribals to exercise rights to harvest bamboo under the Forest Right

A move that proposes to allow forest dwellers to commercially exploit minor forest produce, which includes bamboo, has worried activists and the forest administration, especially after what happene

Gram sabha’s total control over forest produce makes ultras unhappy, reveal reports

Amid reports that Maoists are against according bamboo rights to Adivasis in Gadchiroli, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Chief Ministers of six Naxal-hit States to emulate the success of Mendha Lekha village in that Maharashtra district.

Mendha Lekha became the first village with Community Forest Rights (CFR) to be given transit passbooks to harvest and sell bamboo in April 2011. Since then other villages in Gadchiroli have applied for and got transit passbooks. Mendha Lekha collected Rs. 93.31 lakh in bamboo sales and has been putting the funds into community development.

A movement promoting self-rule in villages and community rights to forests has come under attack from Naxals in the region where it was pioneered.

State government transfers all rights of minor forest produce and major timber to forest management committees