The State Forest department has committed gross irregularities to the tune of crores of rupees causing serious harm to the wildlife conservation of the State, a social and wildlife activist has alleged.
Wildlife and RTI activist from the State capital Ajay Dubey, in a statement here on Monday, informed that the latest report of the Accountant General obtained through a RTI highlighted that the Forest department had ruthlessly spent crores of rupees and committed irregularities in it causing serious harm to the wild animals.
Dubey said, “The Accountant General report says that enquiries against the Indian Forest Service, State Forest Service and other officials in the State are going on for over five years exhibiting State Governments’ flexibility towards corruption.” He charged that the State Government had never seriously looked into the alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 14 crore and further said the Forest department’s lethargic approach in recovering forest revenue was one of the reasons. Revolvers worth over Rs 1 crore were purchased without testing their quality and the department also failed to provide training to use them to the concerned employees, he added.
He said that the Government attitude of compromising with the security of wild life and forests was encouraging the poachers and added that the benefit of unauthorised interest on forest sub-tax to the tune of Rs 3.49 crore was provided to MP Forest Produce Federation. Wrong payments of lakh of rupees were made for purchase of wireless and mobiles, he added.
The RTI activist also urged the State Forest Minister to initiate an immediate high-level enquiry against these financial irregularities and further demanded that those corrupt officials should be punished.
The social and RTI activist has provided all the related documents of the accountant general report obtained through the RTI in support of his allegation.