Three yrs on, Mukerian awaits forest rest house

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, January 11

It’s been three years since Mukerian MLA Arunesh Shakir laid the foundation stone of the forest inspection hut (forest rest house-cum-range office) at Mukerian, but its construction is yet to begin. Owing to dismantling of the old building, the Mukerian forest range office was running in the range officer’s residence for four years.

The forest range office-cum-forest rest house, Mukerian, was built in 1945-46 and was in a shambles for years. A major part of it had collapsed and the rest, being unsafe, was dismantled. The office of the range officer was shifted to the range officer’s official residence till the construction of the new office. The matter came to Shakir’s notice and he promised a new forest rest house. He laid the foundation stone of the proposed new forest rest house in place of the old one on October 2, 2011. Since then, the project has not moved even a step.

Surjit Singh Sahota, Divisional Forest Office, said the range office was being run from range officer's residence as the old office had been dismantled in 2011. He said there were no funds available for its construction. "When the foundation stone was laid, it was proposed that the construction will be undertaken from the funds received under the net value paid for the forest land acquired for the construction or widening of National Highways. But we received directions that the funds should not be used for any construction activity and must be used for afforestation," he said.