Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that marking of dried trees on the forest land would be done on a daily basis in the State and the responsibility of the concerned DFOs will be fixed to ensure it in time. He said that the State Government would take stringent action against the erring officers.
He directed the DFOs to prepare a list of dried trees by 15th June, 2023 after marking these and send them to HP State Forest Corporation for felling. The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting of H.P. Forest Corporation here today.
Chief Minister directed to formulate Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) in this regard and submit the report at the earliest. He said that due to the delay in cutting dried trees, the State has to suffer a financial loss of Rs. 1000 crore per annum as dried trees have been decaying with the passage of time.
He asked them to expedite the procedure in this regard thereby checking the illegal felling of the trees in the forests. He also directed to rationalize the delegation of powers of the forest officers in order to speed up the process of transporting the timber to the nearest depots of the Forest Corporation.
Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also directed to rationalize the staff in Forest Corporation besides incorporating technology in order to enhance productivity. He stressed on making the marketing of timber in an effective manner so that the revenue of the Government could be increased.
He directed the concerned authorities to convene a meeting of Forest Corporation on 8th June to review the progress of decisions taken in the meeting today. Chief Minister said that contractors for felling the dried trees would be empanelled so that dried trees could be extracted from the forest land in time and revenue could be generated to the State exchequer.
Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sunder Singh Thakur, Vice Chairman, H.P. State Forest Corporation, Kehar Singh Khachi, Chief Secretary, Prabodh Saxena, Principal Secretary Forests, Onkar Chand Sharma, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Bharat Khera, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Rajiv Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner Shimla, Shivam Pratap and senior officers of the State Government attended the meeting.