CM to hand over Land Rights documents to over 400 families from Hill forest villages

Darjeeling: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be handing over Land Rights documents to more than 400 families residing in the forest villages of Darjeeling and Kalimpong during her forthcoming visit to the Hills.

A review meeting between the state government and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) officials was held at Lalkothi, the GTA Secretariat in Darjeeling to work out the modalities.

"Work is in progress to verify the claims, along with mapping of the land. In Darjeeling district we had received 1,509 claims from the Scheduled Tribe communities residing in the forest villages, along with 1,232 claims from Other Traditional Forest Dwellers. In Kalimpong district, there were 3,376 claims from the ST community and 4,626 from other communities," stated Binay Tamang, chairman, Board of Administrators, GTA.

Claims of tribals are being processed first. "However, claims of non-tribals will also be processed. All have to meet the claim criteria as prescribed by the government," added Tamang. On September 5, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be handing over Land Rights documents to 300 families of Darjeeling and more than 100 families from Kalimpong district. The documents will be handed over at a government programme to be held at Chowrasta, Darjeeling on September 5.

There are 59 forest villages in the Darjeeling-Pulbazar block, 31 forest villages in the Jorebungalow-Sukhia block, 11 in Rungli Rungliot block, 21 in Kurseong, 4 in Mirik block, 21 in Kalimpong 1 block, 18 in Kalimpong 2 block and 18 in the Gorubathan block.

"We will have a similar review meeting in December again to process the next lot of claims," added Tamang.