An awareness campaign on land rights for tribals in Orissa

Bolangir (Orissa), Dec 15 (ANI): Officials of Orissa's Bolangir district have launched a mass programme to make the tribals more aware of their land rights and the need to protect forests from misuse.

With the aid of the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), the first edition of this awareness project was conducted here on Monday.

On the occasion, Pattas (authorised documents pertaining to land holdings) were distributed to the tribals.

While counselling them, the DFO advised the tribals not to fall prey to the lure of mafia but be firm in their conviction to save their forest land.

"Our awareness campaign is for that purpose to save tribals from undesirable mafia elements. The onus lies on people (tribals) not to furnish false witness. They should not take help of illegal witness or falsehood. Then everything will be okay. If they will not be conscience, some mistakes will crop up," said Raj Kishore Sahu, Divisional Forest Officer, Bolangir.

This initiative of making the tribals aware of the land rights was mooted in the wake of certain vested interests bent on felling trees and forcibly acquiring the forest land. (ANI)