Environmentalists in Himachal Pradesh have asked members of the high-powered committee on land laws to speed up the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
The panel, which has six different subcommittees headed by MLAs, was formed in September last year with the mandate to review the land laws in the state. The committee was constituted citing a large number of land ownership-related conflict cases pending in the high court that were becoming a cause of concern for the government.
Prakash Bhandari of Himdhara Collective said, “The root of this problem dates back to the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which ended up blocking all possibilities of fair and just resolution and regularisation of najayaz kabzas which were indeed legitimate occupations of people facilitated by various state laws like the Nautor Rules. Further, there was a blanket notification issued by the government of Himachal in 1952 that declared all wasteland as forest land.”
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