The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) headed by Chief Secretary, B R Sharma Thursday in its 94th meeting held here, discussed and cleared several proposals of allowing use of forest land for executing developmental projects in various forest divisions of the State.The FAC reiterated its earlier direction to the Soil Conservation and Forest Departments to ensure regular monitoring of construction works. "All types of works including construction of roads, tunnels, laying of pipes, transmission lines etc need to be strictly monitored and no deviation by the user agencies allowed " Chief Secretary said.
Chief Secretary asked the Forest department to proactively ensure that all requisite mitigation measures are undertaken against any likely negative impact of development projects in the forest areas.The FAC also reiterated the direction on minimum felling of trees and undertaking compensatory afforestation in lieu of diversion of forest land for non forest use.Financial Commissioner, Planning Development & Monitoring Department, B B Vyas, Principal Secretary Forest Department, R K Gupta and other senior officers were present in the meeting.