Recognition of rights over the forest land in Western Garo Hills
IPR
TURA, November 11 2022: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma awarded ‘Land Patta’ to 100 tribal households at Gittim village in West Garo Hills of Meghalaya Friday. Swapnil Tembe, DC, West Garo Hills, Rikse R Marak, CEO, Tura Development Board and other dignitaries were present.
Unlike other parts of India, Meghalaya did not have clear land titles. This was due to unique agrarian systems (Shifting Jhum Agriculture) and distinctive social structure. After the reorganization of States and award of Statehood to Meghalaya in 1972, tribals of various parts of Meghalaya have been requesting recognition of their rights over the land.
This was considering the rise of modern agriculture, which demanded clear demarcation of land and its ownership. The absence of Land Records and formal documentation further posed a challenge in identifying the rightful owners.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said, “Right over land is key to the tribal identity of our people. Hence the transfer of Land Rights to the rightful owners is one of our topmost agendas. In the past four and a half years of our tenure, we have done everything to help the people of Reserve Gittim, we have made legal provisions to award legal rights over land to the tribal people of Meghalaya. Going ahead we plan to help tribal people across the state facing similar challenges.”
Swapnil Tembe, DC, WGH, stated “Settlement process is very important. For every application, bank application, loan application, certificate application, land document is important, so land settlement process is important. There are other areas as such in Tura and the District administration revenue branch is surveying about the problems, enforcement staff, DC revenue staff have been instructed to survey and he thanked the CM for all these.”
Beneficiary Remsoni Ch Marak added, “When we went to offices for loans, we were asked if we have pattas and when we could not provide one, we were told we could not apply for big loans. Now that we have got the pattas we are grateful to everyone.”