The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has rapped the Himachal Forest Department over poor-vigil in the forests, which has resulted in encroachments on as many as 27 roads measuring 42.90 km and non-realisation of damage bills of Rs1.38 crore.
In the performance audit on ‘management of forest receipts’, CAG rapped the functioning of State Forest Department and its lackadaisical attitude towards work. It said that laxity on the part of field staff in timely detection of the offence and reporting them to the police has resulted in understatement of Rs35.21 lakh and encroachment in 15 bighas of Government land.
The report further said that in 11 divisions, 188 high lying lots of timber were handed over to Himachal Pradesh State Forest Corporation (HPSFC) for exploitation. “The corporation paid royalty of Rs9.89 crore to the Department at the reduced rates as applicable to Dodra Kawar areas, by adopting a classification of expensive and remote areas, notified by the state government for travelling allowance and transfer purposes and instead paid of Rs35.84 crore at full rates which resulted in under recovery of Rs25.95 crore and VAT of Rs3.36 crore,” said the report which was tabled in the Assembly Budget Session.
The report added that HPSFC had paid royalty at the tentative rate of Rs35 per blaze in 2010 tapping season on scheduled dates. The differential amount of Rs4.79 crore after fixation of the final rate of Rs65.35 per blaze had not been demanded by the department resulted in non-realisation of revenue, besides interest of Rs39.52 lakh on differential amount.
The department charges of Rs1.09 crore were deposited in the compensatory afforestation fund management and planning authority (CAMPA) account instead of depositing it in the revenue head of the Government. This has resulted in understating the revenue to that extent.
The CAG report added that the user agency had deposited Rs277.19 crore on account of cost of 3,56,725 trees of different species coming in the alignment of the projects, in ad-hoc CAMPA account instead of the revenue head of Department which resulted in understating the revenue to that extent.