GFP chief says government's private forest demarcation is 'modern Goa's biggest scam'

PORVORIM:  Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday assured the House that the government will conduct a detailed inquiry into the private forest demarcation and submit the report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), after opposition benches termed the entire exercise as a major scam and demanded that a House Committee be formed to look into the same. 

Former Deputy Chief Minister and Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai questioned the government’s move to appoint a Review Committee under Secretary Revenue to finalise the report of the committee, which was rejected by the government for incorrect field verification and its failure to hold public consultation.

Sardesai said that the committee, which was supposed to assess the 25.29 sq kms of private forest area difference, cropped up in the findings of the Sawant, Karapurkar committees and that the Forest department’s internal committee reduced it to four sq kms. “This means, nearly 21 sq kms of identified private forest was removed from its ambit to facilitate something else. This is a major scam. This is modern Goa’s biggest scam,” he said.

He brought to the notice of the House that the first committee under Sawant was constituted in 1997 as per the Supreme Court’s directions to identify the private forest. A total of 46.60 sq kms area was identified as private forest.

In 2000, the Karapurkar committee was formed, which identified additional 20 sq kms of private forest, he said, while adding that jointly, the committee identified 67.02 sq kms of private forest.

“However, the forest department’s internal committee, through their study, reduced the same to 41.02 sq kms. The difference was of 25.29 sq kms,” Sardesai said, while pointing out that in order to assess the difference, the Review Committee was formed, which indeed reduced the difference to mere four sq kms.

Sardesai demanded the setting up of a House Committee under chairmanship of Chief Minister to conduct the inquiry.

Sardesai received strong support from the Leader of Opposition, Digambar Kamat, who brought to the notice of the House that the report of the Thomas committee on private forest was approved by the government in October 2018. “Despite the approval, the same has been allowed for zone change,” he said.

He too demanded that a House committee be set up.

However, the Chief Minister did not pay heed to their demand and said that the matter is currently pending before the NGT. “The Government will conduct a detailed inquiry and submit the report to the NGT,” he said.