Centre stresses on time bound implementation of forest rights act

New Delhi, Feb 19 : The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has stressed the need for implementation of Forest Rights Act in a time bound manner and urged the States to complete the preliminary work for identification of beneficiaries by the middle of March.

In a two-day meeting of state Secretaries of Tribal Development today, the Secretary of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, G.B. Mukherji said that the Centre gives very high priority for the implementation of scheduled tribes and other traditional forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

Mukherji urged the states to draw action plan and set up effective monitoring mechanism at various levels for continuous review of the implementation of the Act.

The Minister also reviewed the progress of the implementation of the Act so far and explained various points related with its implementation.

The actionable points for the states and the roles of the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Panchayati Raj as envisaged in the Act were also explained in the meeting.

The meeting was also addressed by Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj and senior officials of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

ANI