Jeevan Chinnappa This provides for constitution of forest rights committee, State-level committee Gram panchayats to convene gram sabhas to set up the committees In January, Manmohan told States to expedite it The process of implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act of 2006 has run into rough weather in Kodagu. Official apathy is cited as the sole reason for the delay. The Act makes provision for the constitution of the forest rights committee, the sub-divisional committee, the district-level committee and the State-level committee. Enough efforts have not been made in Kodagu to form the forest rights committee. Gram panchayats are supposed to convene gram sabha meetings to constitute the committees. The Act received Presidential assent in December 2006. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had, on January 8, 2008, directed the Chief Ministers of all States concerned to expeditiously implement the Act. He stated that gram sabhas should be convened to form forest rights committees on February 28 this year. It was to take place in the country on a single day. Fiat violated This was communicated to the Chief Secretaries of States, Administrators of Union Territories by the Union Ministry of Panchayat Raj on February 15, 2008. However, this fiat appears to have been violated by the officials in the zilla panchayat in Kodagu. It is the forest rights committee, which would initiate the process of determining the nature and extent of forest rights, receive and hear claims of applicants. It would then prepare a list of the claimants of forest rights and maintain a register containing details of such claims. Thereafter, the committees would pass a resolution on claims of forest rights after giving reasonable opportunity to interested persons and authorities concerned, consider resettlement packages and send them to the sub-divisional committee. The forest rights committee is also expected to constitute committees from among its members for the protection of wildlife, forests and biodiversity. Thus, a forest rights committee plays a significant role in determining the forest rights of a claimant. Letter Though the State Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, issued a letter to convene gram sabhas to set up forest rights committees on February 21, the information reached the zilla panchayat here on February 26, just two days before the Prime Minister's deadline was to expire. In turn, the zilla panchayat hurriedly communicated this to the gram panchayat secretaries and executive officers of the three taluk panchayats in the district. And, the executive officers have failed to achieve the desired results. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs directed the State Governments to form such committees through a communication on January 1, 2008. The then Conservator of Forests, G.A. Sudarshan, wrote to the chief executive officer of the zilla panchayat in January 2008, asking him to take steps to convene gram sabhas for constituting forest rights committees. However, it was to no avail.