State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Ratnakar Gaikwad, on August 27, heard 10 second appeals filed by tribespersons from Jawhar and Vikramgad talukas seeking information about partial rejections of their rights to land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
Mr Gaikwad asked the collectorate to furnish the information within 30 days. He has asked for speedy disposal of the appeals and ordered that the information about claims under FRA be displayed suo moto for all applications filed after April 1, 2011 on notice boards and online.
The FRA assures tribes living in forests the right to hold and cultivate the land. However, five years down the line, tribes from the two talukas of Thane district have received land titles only to a part of land they had claimed.
Milind Thatte, a volunteer with an NGO called Vayam trained the tribals in filing RTI applications. 700 claimants filed applications in April 2013 seeking reasons for partial rejection
of their claims. When the additional collector’s office at Jawhar did not give any information, 450 claimants filed the first appeal.
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi, who represented the tribes in their second appeal said, “I attended some the first appellate hearings in Jawhar and realised that the PIOs and forest officials were playing tricks to deny the information to the tribes.
It appeared there were no reasons for not accepting the gram sabha recommendations and I asked the tribespeople to file a second appeal. The PIO and FAA were refusing to give this information in writing that there were no reasons on record for the arbitrary actions”
The second appeal by 10 representatives demanded that the information be disclosed to all claimants. “During the hearing, I observed that tribal appellants were not furnished information particularly regarding reasons for decisions to overrule gram sabha recommendations under FRA Act and mandatory provisions of RTI Act were overlooked,” Mr Gaikwad said.