Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 3: Former Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today appealed the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene and frame a high-level committee to probe the reasons behind denial of permission to the Khair wood growers waiting for ‘ready to cut’ standing trees.
“The Jammu and Kashmir Government had issued a notification in 2016, after the Supreme Court (SC) lifted ban on Khair wood cutting by framing certain guidelines,” Singh said while addressing some media persons at her Nagrota residence.
The former Deputy CM said that over 1.25 lakhs of farmers in around 584 villages of Jammu Division are growing Khair wood on their private lands, but delay in granting permission to the farmers to cut the Khair wood trees have left them upset.
“As per the SC guidelines, the farmers permitted to cut the tree grown on his private land, will be eligible for the same almost after a decade and the exercise has to be completed on a rotational manner. Every year, if Khair wood felling is permitted, annual turnover of Rs 100 crore can benefit the community but because of some vested interests, it is being delayed every year, causing losses worth crores,” he said.
He said as per the roster, the notification is issued by the concerned Divisional Forest Officer in the month of April, applications are invited and processed between April to August, demarcation and enumeration of private land and trees therein is done between September to October, issuance of marking and felling permission is granted by the Divisional Forest Officer in November, felling and conversion between November to December and lastly transportation is done from January to February.
“So far, 1973 farmers had applied for the permission, out of which, 1957 were referred to the Revenue department for further action but astonishingly, only eight applications were cleared and the fate of rest is in hanging,” he said. He appealed LG Manoj Sinha to frame a high level committee to find out why permission is intentionally being delayed and not being carried annually on rotational manner as per the Apex Court guidelines.
Follow our WhatsApp channel