10-08-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Mo Jungle Jami Yojana fails big on FRA target
BHUBANESWAR: It was on August 9, 2023, the International Day of the World's Indigenous People, the state government had launched the Mo Jungle Jami Yojana (MJJY) with a lofty goal of providing due rights to the forest-dwelling tribal communities under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, within two years. The deadline lapsed on Saturday, but the scheme seems to have failed to achieve its set targets by miles.
While the FRA is under implementation in the state since January 1, 2008, the scheme was launched by then chief minister Naveen Patnaik to bring absolute focus on transfer of rights and accelerate land ownership and access to forest resources both at individual (eligible Scheduled Tribe forest dwellers) and community levels.
The target was to extend rights over forest land to seven lakh tribal families across 32,000 villages in all the 30 districts and address rights across 35,739 sq km of forest area and 32,562 villages. However, the statistics present a dismal picture.
According to official reports on FRA implementation from 2008 till May this year, the government had received 7,32,530 individual forest rights (IFR) claims against which, 4,63,129 titles were distributed. This includes 6,32,636 claims till July 2023 of which, 4,57,238 were provided. During the implementation of MJJY, only around 5,891 claims were settled.
