Getting forest land clearances for building roads in insurgency infested districts of Chhattisgarh will no longer be a painful wait now.
The Centre has simplified the procedure for offering general approval under Section-2 of Central Forest Conservation Act 1980, keeping in view the need of infrastructural development for public utility.This implies that general approval for construction of roads on forest land in a total of ten left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts of Chhattisgarh will now be granted easily, official informed here.
As per the simplified procedure, the general approval for construction of two-lane highways on forest land will be given by State Government itself.In this context, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand has issued a circular to Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of all the departments and also to the Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors.
According to the officials, simplification of clearance procedure will largely benefit the areas of 10 lWE affected districts of the State, by expediting construction of roads in Chhattisgarh and connecting it to mainstream development.The 10 lWE affected districts include Bastar (Jagdalpur), Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Narayanpur, Jashpur, Kabeerdham (Kawardha), Rajnandgaon, Koriya and Surguja. This simplified procedure will also be applicable in the new districts, which have been formed by reorganizing the aforementioned old districts.
It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Raman Singh, in his meeting with Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi on June 10, 2014, had made the Centre aware of the complications arising in procedure of forest and environment clearances.
In the circular, the Chief Secretary has directed all the Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors that with effect of the rules relaxed by the Central Government, implementation of two-lane highway projects of Integrated Action Plan (IAP) and other schemes in aforementioned districts should be expedited.