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| CM, Forest Minister at 'loggerheads' | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 23: While the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti directed the officers to take care of the nomadic communities during anti-encroachment drives, the State Forest Minister Choudhary Lal Singh said he will not accept any concrete structures on the forest land as this violated the rules.
Mufti recently in a meeting directed the Deputy Commissioners of Jammu Division to ensure that the poor nomadic communities living in the forest areas for decades together were not harassed and dislocated during anti-encroachment drive. "You should go after big land-grabbers who have encroached huge chunks at prime places but the poor and hapless nomads who have been protecting the forests for decades should not be harassed,'' the Chief Minister asked the Deputy Commissioners in a meeting. Quoting Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister said Prime Minister has also made it clear that nobody has the right to snatch away the land of tribals where they have been living for decades. "It is the priority of our government to ensure that tribals get their rights. No one has right to snatch away their lands,'' the Prime Minister had said while inaugurating the first National Tribal Carnival at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi last month, she quoted.
However, J&K Forest Minister Choudhary Lal Singh, while expressing ignorance of any such directions, said, ''I am not aware of any such advisory issued to the officers but want to make it clear that concrete structures (pakka houses) will not be allowed on the forest land."
"The nomads having cattle and livestock were never stopped by the forest officials from grazing their cattle,'' Mr Singh here told He said that the department never opposed grazing in the forest area but encroachment is not acceptable at any cost. "Those already having 'Kachha' houses (mud houses) can live happily and we have no inhibitions but concrete structures are not allowed,'' said the Minister.
He said that State Forest Department will not allow anybody to have 'malkiat' (ownership) rights on the Forest land by having 'pakka' houses. "My fight against the timber mafia and forest land encroachers will continue as it is in the welfare of the state,'' Mr Singh asserted. However, the Chief Minister also asked the Deputy Commissioners that an otherwise prudent administrative action aimed at retrieving state properties should not be portrayed as a campaign against a nomadic hapless community which has all along been protecting the forests and whose socio-economic activity is also closely linked to forests. |
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