Commissioner Secretary Forests, Environment & Ecology, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi today reviewed functioning of the Territorial Forest Divisions of Jammu Province here at a meeting of senior functionaries of the department.Chief Conservator of Forest Jammu, Sameer Bharti, gave a power point presentation about the progress achieved under CAMPA, CAPEX, SFDA and District plan.The CCF Jammu and DFOs also highlighted issues pertaining to encroachment, forest land diversion cases, illicit entries on forest land, lack of sufficient funds, timber and resin issues etc.Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Suresh Chugh endorsed the issues raised by CCF Jammu & DFOs and requested Commissioner Secretary to prioritise the urgent issues and their timely redress.The Commissioner Secretary assured that the genuine issues will be taken care at appropriate level. He also stressed on adopting zero tolerance towards forest land encroachment and dereliction in duty on behalf of field staff.
He directed the DFOs to remain vigilant in their respective jurisdiction and keep close liaison with their counterparts in District Administration. He asserted that the issue of Forest land diversion shall be dealt as per Law and no agency shall be allowed to execute work without accord of Government sanction. He however said that the DFOs will expedite all FCA cases as soon as possible with close cooperation of user agencies. He asked the department to constitute the Village level Forest Committees (VFCs) for protection of forests.Additional PCCF Survey & Demarcation Sarvesh Rai, Special Secretary Forest (Technical) K. Ramesh, Additional Secretary Pankaj Raj Katoch, CF West and all the DFOs attended the meeting.