Deemed forest land issue: final decision in 15 days, says revenue minister R Ashok

Udupi: State revenue minister R Ashok, on February 19, assured the public that the issue of deemed forests in the state is in its final stage and will be sorted out soon.

The handover of the deemed forest land to the revenue department is almost complete, the final decision will be notified in another 15 days, he said at the ‘Jana Spandana” program at Kokkarne here on Saturday. He listened to the complaints of the locals sitting on the floor with them.

There is 9 lakh hectares of deemed forest land in the state. At a joint meeting held with the concerned departments, it was decided to allot 3 lakh hectares to the forest department while the rest of 6lkh hectare deemed forest land will be transferred to the revenue department. Once the transfers are complete the land will be shared among the eligible beneficiaries, he said.

He said, around one lakh acres of deemed forest land in Udupi will be transferred to the revenue department.

The deemed forest dispute started because the earlier governments transferred certain lands under the revenue department to the forest department to stop illegal encroachment of the land. Later the forest department notified it as deemed forest land. This caused several problems to the people dependent on the land, Ashok said.