Environment Ministry office sought in Shimla

Shimla, May 30

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today urged Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, to open a separate and full-fledged integrated regional office of the Environment Ministry in Shimla.

Sukhu called on the Union Minister in New Delhi and urged him not to limit it to a sub-office so that speedy forest clearances were granted for important projects like highway widening and defence infrastructure.

He told Yadav that the Himachal Government was going to construct Rajiv Gandhi day boarding schools having a campus area of around five hectares each. He urged the Union Minister that the limit of the diversion of forestland under the Forest Conservation Act 1980, for the construction of schools in hilly areas may be enhanced to six hectares in the case of Eklavya Model Residential Schools and to five hectares in the case of Rajiv Gandhi day boarding schools.