Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday assured tribal farmers that their forest land rights claims will be settled by December this year.
Fadnavis gave this assurance to representatives of protesting farmers who marched to Azad Maidan here for redressal of their grievances, which include compensation for drought and transfer of forest rights to tribals.
A delegation of theprotesting tribals met Fadnavis at Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai, where the winter session of the state legislature in underway.
Tribal welfare ministerVishnu Savra said 3.6 lakh claims were received, of which 1.74 lakh have been settled in favour of the tribals.
Similarly, 12,000 claims for community forest activity were also received, of which7,700 have been settled, he said.
Fadnavis assured the delegation that the remaining claims would be settled by December this year. The march reached Azad Maidan early Thursday, eight months after a similar protest was held at the venue.
The farmers and tribals who began the two-day march from Thane to Mumbai on Wednesday had halted for the night at the Somaiyya Ground in Mumbai’s Sion area.
The march traversed through Dadar and the JJ flyover before reaching the Maidan, adjacent to the Mumbai municipal corporation headquarters.
In March, thousands of farmers, led by the Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha, took out a 180-km long march from Nashik to Mumbai in March to press for their demands. (PTI)
