Team Herald

PANJIM: After granting three months extension to finalise and submit the report on private forest demarcation, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has now directed Goa government to produce before it, the report of the earlier Review Committee and to specify the reasons for its rejection.  

Goa Foundation in an application filed before the NGT Principal Bench, pointed out that the final report of the Review Committee, to review the private forest findings of the Sawant and Karapurkar committee, had been submitted to the Goa government on June 21, 2019 and that it ought to have been produced before the Court. However, at the last minute, it was rejected by the then Forest Minister (Vijai Sardesai) and a decision was taken at that time to appoint one more Review Committee.

The Tribunal issued an order via a video conferencing on September 3. It directed the State to place before them the Review Committee’s report submitted on June 21, 2019 and to specify the reason for rejecting the same by way of an affidavit before the next date of hearing, which has been scheduled for December 10. 

"We are of the view that it would be of relevance to go through the final report referred to by the applicant if such a report does exist. It would also be necessary to consider the reasons for the rejection of the report submitted by the Review Committee," the order passed by the division bench stated. 

Last month, the State had constituted a three-member panel headed by Joint Secretary Revenue, while the other members are Director of Settlements and Land Records and Deputy Conservator of Forest, South Division.  It was directed to finalise the report on private forests submitted by the Review Committee, after considering the objections of affected parties whose properties are going to be identified as private forests.  The report has to be submitted within the next three months. 

It may be recalled that last year in April, the State 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 back.

However, the government rejected the Review Committee report, as it failed to hear the aggrieved people.

NGT, through its recent order dated August 8, has imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 per day from July 1 onwards till the time the State submit its report.  It has also asked the State to deposit performance guarantee of Rs 1 crore to the satisfaction of the Central Pollution Control Board.

The tribunal has further said that failure to complete the exercise would entail forfeiture of the performance guarantee and further penalty of Rs 50,00,000 over and above the cumulative penalty imposed per day.