‘Jungle raj’ in HP Forest Department
SHIMLA, Feb 19 — Glaring instances of "jungle raj" prevailing in the Forest Department have come to light in the Jubbal division where corrupt officials have made the facility of tree allotment to villagers under the timber distribution rules and encroachments a convenient tool for plundering forest wealth.

Cong activists hold dharna
KULU, Feb 19 — Congress activists sat on a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office yesterday to protest against the alleged anti-farmers policies, political vindictiveness and total failure of the BJP-HVC combine government in the state.

NGO leaders warn govt
BILASPUR, Feb 19 — The Himachal Pradesh State Employees Confederation has warned the government that it would be forced to launch a jan-jagran campaign from April 15 .

Substation awaits commissioning
HAMIRPUR, Feb 19 — A 33/11 KVA substation of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board constructed at Galore village is awaiting commissioning. A sum of about Rs 1.50 crore has been spent on its construction.

‘Jungle raj’ in HP Forest Department
From Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Feb 19 — Glaring instances of "jungle raj" prevailing in the Forest Department have come to light in the Jubbal division where corrupt officials have made the facility of tree allotment to villagers under the timber distribution (TD) rules and encroachments a convenient tool for plundering forest wealth.

Under the rules trees can be allotted only once in five years and mostly tree up to 60 cm girth are sanctioned. However, in some forest beats of the "Jubbal area allotment have been made more than once in many cases mainly due to the connivance of the Forest Guards and Deputy Rangers who wrongly verify year after year that no trees have been given to the right holder concerned over the past five years.

Besides, the field staff has been marking trees of bigger sizes than sanctioned and in most cases trees between 80 cm and 100 cm girth have been marked. In one case an influential officer was allotted trees thrice in two years.

This systematic loot has been continuing for the past over 15 years. The irregularities were unearthed by Mr Magan Bihari Srivastav, who took over as Divisional Forest Officer, Jubbal, recently. However, with the field staff not cooperating in setting things right, the officer was forced to refer the matter to the flying squad and the Directorate of Enforcement.

In a letter to the DFO (flying squad) he stated that the Block Forest Officers were marking oversized trees under the TD rules as a result of which the department was incurring huge losses, worse, the record of tree allotments under the rules were not being properly maintained and in some cases permits had not been issued but on spot big trees of I-D and I-E class had been felled. No entry had been made in the TD register of the beat guard and the money realised had also not been deposited in the treasury. He cited the examples of the Pandranoo, Shashan beats in the Sawra range.

In a Shashan beat as many as six out of the 10 trees inspected were found to be oversize. While the sanction was for trees of 60 cm girth but the field staff had actually marked trees of 90 cm to 100 cm girth. It resulted in a loss of Rs 1.25 lakh to the government.

He said he asked the flying squad to verify all T.D. allotments made in Khara Pathar, Sanaba, Shilli, Badhal, Pandranoo, and Shashan at the first instance to uncover the scandal.

Interestingly, as per rules trees could not be allotted to those who have encroached upon the forest land but allotments had been made to such offenders to construct houses on the encroached land. The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the contents of the letter dated January 21, written by Mr Srivastava to the Director of Enforcement. About 75 per cent of the forests from Khara Pathar to Nandpur had been encroached upon and thousands of trees had been made to dry intentionally. Large-scale constructions, including houses, dharas and garages had come up and vast stretches of forests had been converted into apple orchards and potato fields.

In Sheel village a house was constructed on the forest land adjoining the guard hut, Deputy Ranger's residence and the rest house, indicating the connivance of the field staff. The demarcation of land in the Bandhal beat revealed as many as 10 cases of encroachments and 16 cases of intentional drying of trees.

Mr Srivastava has urged the Enforcement Department to investigate the complaint against the forest guards of the Khara Pathar, Sanaba, Shilli, Barthata, Rawingarh and Sheel beats who had encouraged encroachments, illicit felling and allotted trees in violation of the TD rules.

Above all a large number of forest officials had themselves encroached upon the forest land. The DFO had appended a list of 18 officials, five Deputy Rangers and 13 Forest Guards, who had encroached upon forest land directly or through their parents or other close relatives.

Irregularities had also come to notice in the execution of development works. In Mandhal, a rest house had been completed on papers but in reality it was incomplete. It was without bathroom, septic tank and some other facilities for which funds had been spent.

With the majority of field officials themselves aiding and abetting the illicit fellings and encroachments it is difficult to know who will protect the forests.

Cong activists hold dharna
From Our Correspondent

KULU, Feb 19 — Congress activists sat on a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office yesterday to protest against the alleged anti-farmers policies, political vindictiveness and total failure of the BJP-HVC combine government in the state.

The dharna was led by Mr Nathu Ram Pehalwan, Mr Satya Parkash Thakur, former Horticulture Minister, Mr Raj Krishan Gaur, former Tourism Minister were among those present. They submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Himachal Pradesh through the Deputy Commissioner regarding their demands.

Mr Satya Prakash Thakur alleged that the Dhumal government had failed in utilising the full capacity of its Guma carton factory. He further alleged that local corrugated packing boxes units were ignored and apple cartons were bought from Delhi and outside the state at higher rates.

He said that if the payment to apple growers was not made within a week Congress activists would gherao ministers.

Mr Thakur demanded an inquiry into the alleged scandal of the supply of fruit saplings to farmers.

Virbhadra loyalists dumped
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Feb 19 — Mr Virbhadra Singh, former Chief Minister, received a jolt today when three of his loyalists district Congress chiefs were dislodged by Mrs Sonia Gandhi, AICC President.

It is learnt that the DCC presidents of the politically senistive districts of Mandi, Solan and Hamirpur have been replaced on the advice of Mr Sat Mahajan, PCC President.

Among the dethroned DCC chiefs is Mr Arun Sen, who is a close relation of Mr Virbhadra Singh. He headed the Solan District Congress Committee. Mr Lajja Ram, a sitting MLA, who had supported Mr Sukh Ram in a trial of strength against Mr Virbhadra Singh in 1993, has been made president of the District Congress Committee, Solan.

Mr Vir Singh, a trusted lieutenant of Mr Virbhadra Singh, has been removed from the post of president of the DCC Mandi and Mr Sher Singh Takhur has been installed in his place.

Mr Bhagat Ram, a freedom fighter and an old Congressman, has been dislodged from the post of DCC chief of Harmirpur and Mr Suresh Kumar, a Youth Congress leader, has been appointed in his place.

The dislodged DCC chiefs have been accommodated in various insignificant bodies of the PCC. Mr Vir Singh has been made convener of the training programme cell of the PCC Mr Arun Sen has been included as a member in the panchayati raj cell and Mr Bhagat Ram has been made convener of the freedom fighters cell.

A Congress activist alleged that Mr Mahajan was preparing to rig the organisational elections for which the calendar has been announced. There was no justification in removing these DCC presidents when the election process had been set in motion.

He pointed out that there were serious allegations of anti-party activities against Mr Suresh Kumar, who has been appointed DCC chief of Hamirpur. He had allegedly worked against the official candidate of the Mewa Assembly constituency in the recent election. A complaint to this effect has already been made to the AICC and the Vohra committee.

The Congressmen said that instead of taking disciplinary action against Mr Suresh Kumar, Mr Mahajan has rewarded him by getting him appointed as a DCC chief.

NGO leaders warn govt
From Our Correspondent

BILASPUR, Feb 19 — The Himachal Pradesh State Employees Confederation has warned the government that it would be forced to launch a jan-jagran campaign from April 15 to mobilise employees for an agitation if the employees' demand of benefits on Punjab pattern was not accepted in the Budget session.

Addressing newspersons at Circuit House here yesterday confederation state president Subhash Sharma and secretary-general O.P. Sharma expressed shock and surprise that the government which came to power by declaring that it would provide benefits on the Punjab pattern to the employees had ignored all the demands even after 11 months of its rule. The leaders said the government had no alternative except to call NGOs' state confederation for talks on their damands. They said the federation faction led by Gopal Dass Verma had lost its credibility as it had been divided into four parts in the past four years due to anti-employees' policies.

Substation awaits commissioning
From Our Correspondent

HAMIRPUR, Feb 19 — A 33/11 KVA substation of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) constructed at Galore village is awaiting commissioning. A sum of about Rs 1.50 crore has been spent on its construction.

The failure of the HPSEB authorities to get it commissioned in time has irked people of the Galore belt of the district.

The HPSEB authorities here are reluctant to say why it has yet not become operational. However, insiders say that the panel board of the substation was shifted from here to Daulatpur Chowk in Una district in 1997. This has led to the delay in its commissioning. The panel board costs about Rs 55 lakh.

Mr Anil Verma, pradhan of the Galore Gram Panchayat has demanded the immediate commissioning of the Galore substation. He said here today that residents here were facing the problem of low voltage.