By Our Staff REporter
New Tehri, 1 Nov: Under the chairmanship of Forest Minister Subodh Uniyal, a meeting was held with the Forest Department officials at the Collectorate Auditorium here, today, to resolve the situation which has arisen ostensibly because a large urban area in Narendra Nagar has been categorised by the Forest Department as Forest Land.
Uniyal, who is the Narendra Nagar MLA has been pressing the forest officials for early resolution of the problem.
At the meeting, Uniyal instructed the departmental officers to follow the agreement (Merger Act) made between the Government of India and the then princely state of Tehri in 1948 while considering the revision of the categorisation. He reminded them that the Merger Act should be given priority over all the rules implemented by the Forest Department as this was the basis of the merger of the Tehri kingdom with the rest of the country. Uniyal said that the committee constituted at the district level should give its decision quickly. If the matter is of government level/state level, then the matter should be referred to the higher authorities immediately.
It may be recalled that a committee has been formed by the Uttarakhand Government under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, which works to resolve forest related disputes. In the meeting, the Revenue Department presented a map of Narendra Nagar city and informed the Forest Minister about the architectural situation. On this occasion, the Forest Minister said that employment will be provided to the people by developing tourism destinations in the state.
Chief Forest Conservator Anup Malik, District Magistrate Mayur Dixit, Forest Conservator, Bhagirathi Circle, Dharam Singh Meena, SSP Navneet Singh Bhullar, DFO, Narendranagar Forest Division, Amit Kanwar, President, Narendra Nagar Municipality, Rajendra Vikram Singh, Block President, Narendra Nagar, Rajendra Bhandari, SDM, Narendra Nagar, Devendra Singh Negi, SDM, Tehri, Sandeep Kumar, Tehsildar AP Uniyal and employees of the Revenue and Forest Departments were present at the meeting.
