The State Government should be accorded the right to clear up to five hectare forest land transfer. For project related compensatory afforestation, plantation on degraded forest land should also be allowed. Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said this while meeting Union minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi on Monday.
Rawat said that swift decisions are needed on forest land transfer cases for reconstruction in disaster affected areas, all-weather road project, PMGSY, rural electrification and other ambitious schemes. For this, the State should be empowered to clear cases of up to five hectare land. Further, compensatory afforestation should also be allowed on degraded forest land for BRO road projects and Central projects. It is mandatory to undertake compensatory plantation on double area of civil land for central funded and state government projects. However, majority of the state’s area is under forest cover and civil land is limited, considering which compensatory plantation for all such projects should be allowed on degraded forest land. Rawat said that from time to time the State has requested the Centre to allow felling of mature trees above 1000 metres altitude. This was also recommended by the Forest Research Institute after a scientific study, said Rawat, while requesting the Union minister to grant permission.
He said that earlier, water cess collected from various industrial activities was deposited with the Central Government which provided 80 per cent of this to the state pollution control board. This has been discontinued as a result of GST Act, stopping an average annual income of Rs 3.25 crore of the State government. The CM also said that as per Central Government directions, setting up of regular air quality monitoring stations in five cities along with environmental data centre and 142 additional stations for air quality monitoring, a cost of Rs 20 crore is estimated which should be provided by the Government of India to the state pollution control board. Rawat further said that the Rangers College under the MoEFCC has considerable vacant land which can be used in the future for the smart city project, hosting national games and other events. Considering this, the vacant land of the Rangers College should be transferred to the State Government, demanded the CM.