CAG indicts State Government Railwork taken up sans consent of MoEF
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 09 2013:
Latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Government of India has revealed that the Government of Manipur sought consent of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) for diversion of forest land for the Jiribam-Imphal railway work when the same work was already put into motion.
According to the latest CAG report, the State Government sent a written proposal to the MoEF Ministry last year for its approval to give 491.67 hectares of forest land to the Northern Frontier Railways for construction of Jiribam-Imphal railway line.
These forest lands fall under the jurisdiction of District Forest Officer Tamenglong, DFO Jiribam and DFO Northern Division.
Acting on the State Government's proposal, CAG checked records available at the Commissioner of Taxes, Manipur.
But it was found that the Northern Frontier Railways had already started implementing the railway project in 2010 even as MoEF had not given its consent to the State Government for transfer of forest land to Northern Frontier Railways.
The CAG report further revealed that no record was available with Forest Department about tree plantation on 172 hectares under Senapati and Eastern Forest Divisions between 2004 and 2011 at the cost of Rs 0.28 crore.
The report also noted that 404 families were displaced when 595 hectares of forest land were acquired by the Government for the Thoubal Multipurpose Project in 2009-10 .