FIRM: Members of the Legislative Council Committee on Government Assurances arriving at Aranya Bhavan in Mysore on Wednesday to hold a meeting with top officials of the Forest Department. — PHOTO: M A SRIRAM

MYSORE: The Legislative Council Committee on Government Assurances on Wednesday set a three-month deadline for Forest Department officials to clear encroachments on 65,000 hectares of forest land in the State and the submission of a detailed action taken report (ATR) along with a list of those who had encroached upon more than 10 hectares of land. The committee has also directed the officials to strive to prevent such encroachments in future.

Detailed discussion

The committee, led by K.T. Srikante Gowda, held a meeting with top Forest Department officials at Aranya Bhavan here to have a detailed discussion on 21 assurances given to the department by the Government. Members of the committee C.S. Arun Machaiah, S.M. Anand, Siddu Nyama Gouda, Shashil Namoshi, B.T. Channabasappa and Mallajamma, Principal Secretary of the Forest Department Prabhu, principal chief conservators of forests Dileep Kumar and A.K. Verma, deputy conservators of forests and other officials attended the meeting.

Two other committee members Maritebbe Gowda and L. Hanumanthaiah were not present.

Mr. Prabhu told the meeting that the department had already begun clearing encroachments and sought time to evict the encroachers. He also sought the support of the police for clearing the encroachments.

Support

Mr. Kumar sought the support of the elected representatives, deputy commissioners and superintendents of police of the districts in the task.

Mr. Gowda told presspersons after the meeting that the department had been given three months to clear all encroachments of forest land. He said the State had earlier sent a proposal to the Union Government for regularisation of 19,533 hectares of forest land for 21,659 families.

However, the Union Government approved the regularisation of 14,848 hectares of forest land for 19,348 families. Accordingly, the State Government, in its order dated May 5, 1997, asked the deputy commissioners of districts to implement the Union Government's order, he said.

But only 4,756 hectares of forest land had been regularised for 7,186 families.

On various grounds, the regularisation of 3,578 hectares of forest land for 4,420 families had been rejected, while the regularisation of the remaining land was under way, Mr. Gowda added.

Dumping of waste

Mr. Gowda said that the committee had taken a serious view of reports of the alleged dumping of waste, some of which was hazardous, by people from Kerala and Goa inside forests of Karnataka bordering those States.

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