A panel of three BJP MLAs has been set up to probe the incident of illegal bamboo felling at Haldibadi Beat of Banki Mongra in Chhattisgarh's Korba district, Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik announced on Thursday. Kaushik said in a statement that the committee will be led by former Minister and senior MLA Nankiram Kanwar. Its other members are former Minister and MLA Dr Krishnamurthy Bandhi and MLA Saurabh Singh. A video of the Forest Beat Guard, Shekhar Singh Ratre, went viral on social media wherein he is pulling up his seniors at the Haldibadi reserve forest for getting bamboo trees felled without proper official order. The guard prepared a charge-sheet against the Ranger and his Deputy but they refused to sign it. Meanwhile, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Rakesh Chaturvedi had hinted at taking action against the guard.
Kaushik said the BJP panel will submit a report within 10 days. The question arises why the Forest Department is refraining from holding an in-depth probe into the incident. Is the department trying to save a higher up, he asked.