Minister for Forests, Choudhary Lal Singh today informed the Legislative Assembly that presently 30 Timber Sale Depots of the State Forest Corporation (SFC) are functioning in Pahalgam constituency, and 13963 cft of timber was made available to these depots for sale to the consumers during the current financial year.Replying to a question by Altaf Ahmed Wani, the Minister said the Department has also supplied 269 quintals of firewood to the religious places falling within the Pahalgam constituency before the onset of the winter season as per the demand, and no further requisition is pending with the depots at the moment.Regarding government's decision to hike of prices of timber being supplied by the State Forest Corporation through the network of its sale depots, the Minister said that it is due to ever increasing cost of extraction, transportation and handling of the timber.
Besides, the department has also decided to phase out the component of subsidy and utilize the additional revenue generated for aforestation of degraded forests, said the Minister.The Minister further informed that the work of distribution/sale of timber has been entrusted to the State Forest Corporation with effect from July, 2016 as per its mandate. The territorial staff was not in a position to fulfill its basic obligation towards protection, preservation and maintenance of the forests and aforestation etc, said the Minister.Ch. Mohammad Akram, Usman Majid, Mubarak Gul, Er. Abdul Rashid Sheikh, Abdul Majid Larmi and Javed Mustafa Mir asked supplementary questions pertaining to their constituencies. They called for ensuring adequate quantity of timber and firewood on concessional rates to the people of their areas.