Drabu to face aggressive Bhagat in Cabinet meet

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 1

Facing criticism from BJP ministers and legislators on the charge of discrimination in distribution of development funds, Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu is likely face the anger of an annoyed colleague in the Cabinet meeting to be held on Wednesday.

Forest Minister Bali Bhagat, who is from the BJP, has taken very serious note of the alleged assault on a forest official by the public relations officer (PRO) of the Finance Minister.

“I will take up this matter with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. It is a very serious matter because an official in uniform was assaulted,” Bhagat said.

He said this when his reaction was sought on Friday’s incident. “We will not succumb to any pressure and our anti-encroachment drive will continue unabated,” asserted the Forest Minister.

Highly placed sources said Bhagat had already taken up the matter with BJP leaders. He said such incidents would demoralise officials engaged in the drive to retrieve encroached upon forest land. In the national capital for the last four days, Bhagat reached Jammu this afternoon.

As reported earlier, the PRO on Friday allegedly assaulted a forest official who was performing his official duty along with other officials.

Officials of the Forest Department were removing encroachment from forest land at Sangarwani Nichendajan in the Rajpora area of Pulwama district.

Mohammad Kabir and his staff were removing encroachment on forests near Sangarwani when PRO Junaid Rashid allegedly slapped the forest official and threatened him of dire consequences if he did not stop his work.

After the incident, the Forest Minister had issued instructions to his staff to intensify the anti-encroachment drive. On Saturday, the day after the incident, a team of the Forest Protection Force retrieved 150 kanal of forest land in the same area.