Wednesday, 25 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Public Works Department (PWD) minister, Satpal Maharaaz has said that Uttarakhand has no land bank for compensatory afforestation (CA) for construction of roads. He said that the process of land transfer from forest in 416 road projects is going on. A budget of Rs 44.45 crore is sanctioned for these stalled road projects.
He was responding to a question by Rajpur MLA, Khajan Das during question hour on Tuesday. The member had asked about the number of road projects hindered by the non availability of NOC from the forest department.
Govt faces heat on fencing around Tehri reservoir
The government was cornered during the question hour on the issue of fencing around the Tehri reservoir for saving lives of people and domestic animals. The irrigation minister Satpal Maharaaz told the house that an understanding was reached in meeting convened on the orders of Supreme Court (SC) and chaired by the joint secretary power of government of India in New Delhi on June 30, 2011 that fencing and shades would be set up around the Tehri reservoir to save human and animal lives. He however added that no work on it could be done since the government received no proposal from the village Panchayats concerned. In his reply the Minister informed that 14 people have so far drowned in the reservoir from the year 2017-18.
The Dhanaulti MLA Pritam Singh Panwar castigated the government for showing apathetic attitude on the issue. “You have said that no proposal was received from the Panchayats so the fencing work was not initiated in the last ten years. Is it not the responsibility of the government to save the lives of the people,’’ he questioned.
