Mangalore : Minister for Forest and Environment, B Ramanath Rai pulled up the officials of the revenue and forest departments and directed them to complete the joint survey to identify deemed forest land in Dakshina Kannada district within one and a half months.

After the completion of the survey, the report will be placed before the Cabinet and the government has to submit an affidavit before the Supreme Court within six months, he said.

He was chairing a meeting to review the progress of survey of deemed forest land, at deputy commissioner’s office on Saturday.

Briefing about the survey, Deputy Conservator of Forest K T Hanumanthappa said that according to the previous survey conducted by field level teams, 10,000 acre land in the district is identified as deemed forest.

The revenue and forest department staff are conducting a joint survey to verify the previous report and remove non-forest land from the classification of deemed forest. Of the 2,000 deemed forest cases, 20 per cent of the cases has been verified so far.

He cited lack of village blueprint / map of some of the villages and non-availability of village accountants representing revenue department as the reason for the delay in the progress of the survey.

He requested the deputy commissioner to allow village accountants to work with the forest department staff for next 15 days or on alternative days so that the survey process could be completed in time.

The District-in-Charge Minister said it was one time survey, hence both the departments should coordinate. Human habitation in deemed forest land will be evicted after the completion of the survey.

In another meeting to discuss the effective implementation of Forest Rights Act, ITDP Project Coordinator Sabeer Ahmed Mulla said that the department which is the nodal agency to implement the Act in the district, has received 2,354 applications under Forest Rights Act.

Of the total applications, title deeds were issued to 76 applicants, 72 individual claims, 550 records are in others names and need to be changed, and 1,721 applications were rejected.

The forest and ITDP departments will take up a joint inspection to verify the land. Village Forest Rights Committees have been formed in 370 villages, he said.

During a presentation on implementing Swachh Bharat campaign, District-in-Charge Secretary Bharat Lal Meena directed the district administration to emphasise on segregation of waste at source for the campaign’s success.

Every panchayat and municipal body has to plan for the effective segregation of waste. Dakshina Kannada district can set a model in implementing the campaign, he said.

Puttur TMC President Jagadish Shetty explained about the TMC’s plans to handle waste in the town, through pipe composting, wet waste management and vermi compost unit.

Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Tulasi Maddineni and others were present.