A total of 259 Van Gujjar families will be rehabilitated on 160 hectares of land which has been chosen, it was decided at a meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain at the secretariat on Monday.
Chief Secretary directed the officials that before the families were rehabilitated, drinking water, toilets, construction material for building homes, electricity, roads and schools should be made available for them. Identity cards will be issued by the forest department to van gujjar families.
For rehabilitation work, an officer would be posted. A proposal will be sent to the Union Government for sanctioning Rs10 lakh to each family.
Principal Secretary (Forest) S Ramaswamy, Principal Forest Conservator SS Sharma, MC Joshi and Additional Secretary (Forest) Manoj Chandran were also present. In another development, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has paid tributes to Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali and other soldiers who were part of the revolt known as Peshawar episode.