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Jamguda in the tribal-dominated Kalahandi district of the state has become the second village in the country to provide the community right of harvesting bamboo under the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
The official transit passes (TP) were handed over to the forest dwellers by Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh.
With this, the villagers are now free to harvest and sell bamboo without any special permission from the government.
Speaking on the occasion, Ramesh called for accelerating the process by implementation of FRA in other parts of the country.
He pressed for a fast-paced development process in the tribal-dominated areas to counter the Naxal influence.
Union Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Deo, local Congress MP Bhakta Charan Das and state Revenue Minister Surya Narayan Patro were present at the function where 50 acres of individual forest land and 23.5 acres of community forest land were also given to 60 families.
Mendha Lekha in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra was the first village of the country to provide the right to harvest bamboo.
Over 15,000 villages in Odisha have been identified for getting community rights as per the FRA provisions.
While 2,300 villages have already received the titles, applications of 6,000 villages are currently being processed, they said.
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