After State Information Commissioner Hafiz Usman warned the officials of Saharanpur Administration as well as of Pollution Control Board and Forest Department for taking strong action if they do not comply with his orders of closure of some illegal saw mills which are creating pollution in the district, the Forest Department reportedly made a move to misguide the SIC.
The Forest Department filed a reply to Usman’s warning informing that they took necessary action but sources said that they just aware of the action taking by them more than a year back of registering cases against illegal saw mills but not ensuring their closure. Interestingly in earlier replies to SIC also, while the administration and pollution department claimed that the action could not be taken due to various reasons but the Forest Department gave undertaking that one of the mills was already closed. Earlier Usman, gave the closure task to Divisional Commissioner of Saharanpur and to make the district free from both noise and air pollution. He also asked the Commissioner to take action against the officials who were responsible for polluting the district.
Talking to `The Pioneer’ here on Tuesday afternoon, Usman said that Saharanpur, famous for it’s furniture and wood artisans, had turned out to be a hell for the local residents due to coming of many manufacturing units within the residential areas and even on the footpaths near parks and other public places. He said that the local residents launched agitation several times claiming that the saw dust which came out from the saw mills, buffing machines and cutting of wooden logs by the saw and the noise made by the machines used to cut the wood, had added to their woes in form of air and noise pollution. He said that due to power shortage, many of such units run during the night hours which created further trouble for the residents who could not even had a sound sleep. Usman further said that one Rafat Jahen, a local woman from Saharanpur, filed a complaint in his office disclosing that she sought some query from the offices of Saharanpur Development Authority, Nagar Nigam and Pollution Control Board office, about how much illegal units were running in the district, how much pollution they were contributing in the district and lastly what action has been taken in this regard. She informed me that despite of several reminders, none of the authorities concerned had taken notice of it.
Usman claimed that taking the matter seriously, he summoned officers from the all the three departments, but except for Nagar Nigam and Pollution Control Board, the executive engineer of Saharanpur Development Authority, who is Right to Information (RTI) Act officer, did not turned up even before him. SIC also disclosed that he was further shocked with the report of Pollution Control Board which pointed that both air and noise pollution is on the rise to alarming level in Saharanpur. He said that after he imposed a cash fine on the officers they appeared before him and had also mentioned names of some saw mill owners like Fariuddin, Abdul Rahim, lokman, Gulfam, all having illegal saw mills at Goteshah Chowk in Saharanpur. Usman said that subsequently he ordered closure of all those units.
According to Usman, recently when the matter again came up before him, he was shocked to find that nothing concrete has been done for closure of illegal units. He summoned the officials and found that despite of passing of about a year, the entire exercise was made on papers. The officers concerned took one or the other excuse of not complying with his orders and now informed him that since magistrate were busy in local Panchayat elections so the closure exercise will be made by October 24. Interestingly, contrary to this, Forest Department claimed that the saw mill of Fariuddin was already closed by them.
Usman said that in wake of the above development, he gave warning last month to get all the illegal units closed immediately. Usman said that much to his surprise, the Forest Department now came with a reply that they already took necessary action against the mill owners. He claimed that the truth was that, the Forest Department reply only mentioned about the cases which they registered with the police against illegal saw mill owners more than a year bach but no further action has been initiated and mills were still running. He claimed that now he will seek report from administration before initiating action against the guilty officials.