PANJIM: State Government has constituted seven teams to carry out site inspections of the properties, identified as private forest by the Review Committee and to submit report by January 6.
The Committee headed by Joint Secretary Revenue is been directed to submit the final report on identification of private forest by January 10.
The teams, which will inspect all 12 Talukas, comprises of Inspector of Settlement and Land Records (ISLR), local Range Forest Officer and Talathi.
“Government is pleased to constitute seven inspection teams to carry out site inspection of the properties as per Annexure in respect of the identified Private Forest by the Review Committee in its report dated June 21, 2019,” Under Secretary (Forest) Shaila Bhosle said.
The site inspection teams shall submit their respective reports to the Joint Secretary (Revenue), Chairman of the Review Committee by January 6, so as to enable the committee to finalise the Review Committee report dated June 21, 2019 for onward submission to Government on or before January 10,” she said further.
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.
In December, last month, National Green Tribunal (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.
