Chief Secretary N Ravi Shankar said that in order to accelerate the pace of all round development of the State, forest clearances should be accorded top priority. He said this while reviewing the progress of forest land transfer through video conferencing with district magistrates here on Wednesday. He has directed DMs to complete formalities in a time bound manner as per Ministry of Environment and Forests guidelines. All field officers concerned should work in a coordinated manner, he said, adding that he would again review the progress after a week.
It may be recalled that Government of India accords forest clearance in two phases. In first phase it gives approval in principle. After fulfillment the five conditions, MoEF gives final forest clearance. CS was informed that 267 approvals in principle has been received but owing to the conditions not being met, final clearance could not be accorded. Shankar has directed all DMs to deposit NPV (Net Present Value) and compensatory afforestation without delay.
The CS has directed principal secretary, Forest and Environment Dr Ranveer Singh to mail the present status of clearance at Nodal Office level to DMs, so that they can match it with their own record and also to visit the districts lagging behind. Shankar reviewed the district wise progress and found that there are 19 pending cases of forest land transfer in Pithoragarh, 30 in Almora, 15 in Uttarkashi, six in Udham Singh Nagar, 27 in Chamoli, 31 in Tehri, 30 in Dehradun, 20 in Nainital, 32 in Bageshwar, 28 in Pauri, 11 in Champawat and 15 in Haridwar.