Lok Sabha Question No. 853 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-23
Subject: Construction of Road on Forest Land
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Santosh Pandey

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 853

TO BE ASWERED ON 23.07.2021

## Construction of Road on Forest Land

## 853. SHRI SANTOSH PANDEY :

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether it is necessary to take permission from the forest department before construction of roads on forest land in forest areas;
- (b) if so, whether permission has been taken from the forest department for the construction of the under-construction inter-state Pandriya-Bajag-Gadasarai road in district Kabirdham of Rajnandgaon Parliamentary Constituency and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  due  to  cutting  of  thousands  of  trees  without permission  from  the  forest  department  and  illegal  mining  of 'murum'  and  'gitti'  for  the under-construction road at a cost of 128 crores, a penalty of Rupees 1 crore 17 lakh was imposed  on  the  construction  agency  by  the  public  works  department,  which  was  later reduced to Rupees 20 lakhs;
- (d) if so, the rationale behind reducing the amount of penalty;
- (e) whether the said penalty has been recovered from the concerned agency and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) whether the permission has been granted by the forest department to continue the said work and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) Yes, Sir. As per the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 prior approval of the Central Government is needed for use of forest land for non-forestry purposes.
- (b) Approval under the provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act, has been obtained for use of 15 ha of forest land for construction of the inter-state Pandariya-Bajag-Godasarai road in District Kabirdham of Rajandgaon Parliamentary constituency vide Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India letter dated 26.03.1996. Original proposal was submitted for diversion of 25 ha of forest land.
- (c) (d) and (e) Based  on  a  complaint  that  the  user  agency  was  using  soil/clay  from  forest  land  to construct  the  referred  road,  the  Divisional  Forest  Officer  (DFO),  Kawardha  had constituted  a  committee  to  investigate  the  matter.  Recommendation  of  the  committee was examined by DFO and a penalty of Rs.1,19,90,600.00 was imposed for the above irregularity.

Later, based on the representation of the user agency, site inspection was made by DFO, Kawardha alongwith field staff and Executive Engineer, PWD (User Agency) and it was found  that  small  stones  and  mud,  which  rolled  down  due  to  rains  from  the  mountain located on both sides of the road, had been removed and dumped on the forest land at the end of the route. Based on this, the penalty was revised to Rs. 20,000,00.00 and the user agency  had  deposited  the  penalty  amount  of  Rs.20,00,000.00  vide  Challan  No.  020, dated 27.04.2020.

- (f) As  per  the  report  submitted  from  the  State  Forest  Department,  Chhattisgarh,  the permission  for  further  continuance  of  said  work  was  based  on  the  final  approval accorded  vide  letter  dated  26.03.1996  by  Ministry  of  Environment  and  Forest,  New Delhi.

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