Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Choudhary Lal Singh today conducted an extensive tour of Sulla Park, Garhi, Kanthan and Arnas in Reasi district and reviewed the functioning of the forest department.During his visit he inspected Belowain Nursery spread over 850 hectares and forest enclosures set up by the department in the district.District Development Commissioner Reasi Ravinder Kumar, Managing Director State Forest Corporation Arun Tikoo, Director Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing O P Sharma, Chief Conservator of Forests Roshan Jaggi, Director Forest Protection Force Suresh Gupta, SSP Reasi Sujit Kumar besides other senior officers of Forests, PHE, PDD and RDD accompanied the Minister during the tour.Minister directed the officers of Forest Department to immediately start the fencing work of nurseries and forest enclosures for avoiding encroachments and smuggling of timber and directed for increasing vigil to curb such practices.Ch Lal Singh directed for developing Sulla Park with proper landscaping and taking up plantation of flowers and ornamental trees to provide better ambiance to the people visiting the park.
He appealed the people to cooperate with the concerned department for proper upkeep of these parks and maintaining cleanliness.The Minister directed the department to enhance vigil to prevent incidents of forest fires and asked to keep a check on activities that might cause forest fire causing irreparable loss to ecology. He also asked people to desist from encroaching forest land and reiterated that such illegal structures would be demolished as and when noticed.Later, the Minister also convened a public grievances redressal camp at Garhi and Salal and listened to the demands and problems of the people.Lal Singh assured the people that their problems would be redressed on priority. He said a massive development plan has been formulated by the Government for the upliftment of people living in rural and hilly areas of the State.Responding to the demand for early payment under MG-NREGA, the Minister directed district administration to take immediate steps in this regards. He asked concerned department to issue job cards to the people so that they would be able to secure 100 job days and other benefits as envisaged in the scheme.