PANJIM: As the National Green Tribunal (NGT) grants final six-weeks time to finalise the report on private forests, the State Government has asked the Committee headed by Joint Secretary Revenue to submit the final report by December 24 for its approval.
Last year in April, the government had constituted a committee to review the private forest findings of the Sawant and Karapurkar committee. The committee had to assess the areas of 42.12 sq kms identified as private forest by Sawant and Karapurkar committee, nearly a decade ago.
However, the government rejected the Review Committee report, as it failed to hear the aggrieved people.
Thereafter in August this year, it constituted a special three-member committee under Joint Secretary Revenue to finalise the private forest report based on the review committee findings and after hearing the affected parties.
“The Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Revenue) shall finalize the report dated 21-06-2019 submitted by the Review Committee on the Private Forest areas identified by Sawant and Karapurkar Committees and submit the finalized report by 24-12-2019 for Government approval,” Shaila Bhosle, Undersecretary (forest), said in an order issued.
Earlier this month the NGT granted final six weeks time to government to submit its report on private forests, while slapping an additional penalty of Rs 50 lakh for the delay.
NGT Principal Bench had in August granted three months extension to submit the report and had imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 per day from July 1, 2019 till the submission of the report. Further, NGT imposed a performance guarantee amount of Rs 1 crore to be paid within two weeks to the Central Pollution Control Board.
