HP Assembly adopts govt resolution for amendments in Forest Conservation Act

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Friday, 20 December 2024, unanimously adopted a government resolution urging the Union government to amend the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) for providing forest allotment of lands up to 10 bighas to affected persons who suffered massive damage to land and property in natural calamities.

Replying to the discussion on the resolution, revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi said that massive damage was being caused to lands and properties due to natural calamities every year but because of the FCA, the government was not able to allot land to the affected persons even though the state government was the owner of forest lands.

He said that the government has urged the central government to allow allotment of up to 10 bighas of forest land to the affected people.

Agriculture minister Chander Kumar said that not only Himachal but other states are also helpless in allotting forest land to affected people.

Revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi had previously met the governor of Himachal Pradesh and demanded his intervention to approve the file for suspension of the Forest Conservation Act in tribal areas of the state.

Speaking to the media in the past, Jagat Negi had said that he was hopeful that the governor will approve the proposal of the cabinet of the state government and that the tribal people will get Nautor land. Nautor is waste land owned by the central government outside towns, reserved and demarcated as protected forests, and given for use with the sanction of a competent authority.

Negi also expressed hope that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi would take on the role of LoP in the Lok Sabha. In Himachal Pradesh, a rule was passed in 1968, the Nautor rule. According to this rule, there was provision for providing land to those who had less than 20 bighas of land, and the government used to provide up to 20 bighas of land on minimum tax. This rule had benefited thousands of landless people in the state.

In 1980, the Forest Conservation Act was implemented. and the Nautor rule ended. But in tribal areas, the Nautor rule continued, and the tribals were receiving benefits even after that for a long time. Later, the Supreme Court directed strict implementation of the Forest Conservation Act across the country, and it stopped all Nautor land allotment in tribal areas as well.