4 forest officials under scanner for ‘favour’ to realtor

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 26

The role of two senior Punjab-cadre IFS officers and two divisional forest officers (DFOs) has come under the scanner of the Vigilance Bureau in connection with forest permissions given to a private coloniser in Mohali.

Acting on information, vigilance bureau sleuths today conducted surprise checking at the head office of the Punjab Forest Department here and scanned the office record regarding 38 acres of land covered under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) in a residential sector of Janta Land Promoter Limited in Mohali.

The case has come to light when it was pointed that the Forest Department needed to charge compounding fee from the coloniser for not adhering to the norms of the PLPA. The role of a former Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) and a serving Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) is under question for not checking the violation at the time of construction.

Confirming the checking, a senior vigilance official said nothing concrete had emerged so far and the matter was under probe.

Though the vigilance sleuths checked CCTV footage there regarding an alleged payment of bribe, nothing substantial has emerged so far, it is learnt. Some persons have also been quizzed.

While Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Jatinder Sharma was not available for comments, the present CCF (Hills) Harsh Kumar claimed that he was the one to point out the anomaly on part of the field staff and his predecessors.

Incidentally, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau is also probing the controversial felling of 24,000 fully grown trees under a project to rejuvenate the Bist Doab canal.