Forest dept demands more teeth,security

“There had been many instances where during patrolling,we came across SUVs with VIPs and their musclemen frequenting the peripheral areas. Whenever we approached the police to accompany us and check the VIPs’ suspicious activities,the police always refused to come to our aid,” the officials submitted in the report.

Hinting at a few VIPs’ keen interest in the peripheral areas due to increasing property prices in the region,the report also states that many illegal occupations of peripheral land and subsequent illegal transfers are taking place; which are not being checked.

The report suggests that by enacting a special act,the state government must frame a policy and ensure that all benami transactions executed by the anti-social elements be probed,cancelled if required,and the land be brought back under the management of the Forest department.

“The state government must also clarify its stand on the Punjab land Preservation Act (PLPA),as reports of its abolition are encouraging speculative sale of peripheral land and are resulting in violations of the Act,” the report adds.

The report has also listed a number of incidents when the state police either resisted or completely refused to act against violators. On January 9,when a forest guard was attacked by land mafia,the station house officer of Nayagaon police station,instead of acting against the assailants,took action against the victims. It was only after the intervention of the state forest minister,who raised the matter in the Vidhan Sabha,that the real accused were produced in the court. “In September,2009,when a tractor trolley was seized by the forest department for illegal mining; the ‘goons’ snatched it. Despite the complaints,police took no action. In April,this year,another tractor-trolley was seized by the police. But they failed to act beyond the seizure,” the report alleges.

The Ropar District Forest Officer had,meanwhile,lodged around 400 cases in the local courts against various persons in the last three months for violations of the Forest Act and the PLPA in the city’s periphery.

The demand charter

Punjab police be posted with the Forest department on deputation and personal security officers be given to the department officials (Principal Chief Conservator B C Bala has also written to Director General of Police P S Gill requesting that the department be given PSOs)

A control room be set up in Ropar division with flying squads for patrolling the area

Check posts be set up near Mullanpur barrier,Nabha bridge,Karoran and Majri bridge

Forest department’s permission be made mandatory for movement of heavy machines like JCBs,bulldozers in kandi area; the department be given powers to confiscate machinery used in illegal acts Demarcation of forest land