Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat expressed deep concern over the forest fire raging in some parts of the State and wrote to the Governor on Thursday, suggesting many things that would help the State fight the forest fire. He said the proportions that the forest fire has been assuming are alarming. If things continue it would affect State forest reservoir, drying up the water resources finally. The wild animals are bearing the brunt of the fire and the toll of human lives is on the rise, Rawat said in the letter to the Governor.
He gave six suggestions to the Governor which, if implemented, might help mitigate the ill-effects of forest fire that ravages a large swap of the forests of the State every year. He sounded unhappy over five districts being declared as drought-affected, saying that entire rain feed land or un-irrigated land should be declared as drought affected.
Taking the Centre head-on, Rawat said they had failed to put into motion an effective water management policy despite the fact that a large part of the country has been reeling under drought for the past two years. “When I was in the Union Cabinet I planned to link Cane and Betwa river in Bundelkhand. Besides, I implemented measures to rejuvenate our water resources down to the village level. However, fund crunch came in the way as the money required was not released. Things are standing still as the present Centre too has not cleared funds,” the former CM said.