Official seal of Chhattisgarh

Official seal of Chhattisgarh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

TNN | Feb 26, 2014

 

RAIPUR: Forest land measuring 835.616 hectares is being used for mining purposes by public sector undertakings (PSU) in Chhattisgarhwithout approval of Union government.A review report of Chhattisgarh State Compensatory, Afforestation, Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) by CAG, which was tabled in Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday, reveals that PSUs have been mining on forest land even after their in-principle approval lapsed seven years ago.

The report states that despite availability of non-forest land for compensatory afforestation (CA) in state, certificates of non-availability of non-forest land were given and CA was done in degraded forest area. The report also reveals that forest land measuring 77.500 hectares was used for development of an eco tourism centre by state government in violation of Forest Conservation (FC) Act.

CAMPA unauthorisedly spent Rs 12.31 crore on purchase of vehicles, infrastructure and other eco-tourism activities in contravention to guidelines and instructions of Centre.

“Selection of sites despite plantation in previous years, selection of wrong species and payment at higher rates in the scheme of special species plantation under CAMPA led to irregular/doubtful/excess expenditure amounting to Rs 1.07 crore,” the report revealed.

It also states that non implementation of hariyali prasar yojana as per guidelines resulted in high mortality of 71% to 90% of plants and unfruitful expenditure of Rs 82.89 lakh.

Meanwhile, an audit of taxes on vehicles revealed that inaction by RTO, Raipur, to adopt a proper mechanism regarding remittance, realisation and reconciliation of demand drafts resulted in embezzlement of government revenue of Rs 1.31 lakh. The report states that there was was non/short levy of trade fee of Rs 1.60 crore in six tansport offices.

Due to non-issue of notice of demand for recovery of tax from defaulting vehicle owners, there was non-realisation of tax amounting to Rs 1.73 crore in seven transport offices.

  • Read more here – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/raipur/Chhattisgarh-PSUs-mining-on-forest-land-without-approval/articleshow/31018265.cms

 

 

 

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