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| Forest department proved gold mine for many | | | Shiv Kumar Padha Basohli | 5/13/2018 10:01:35 PM |
| If we look down from a satellite Jammu and Kashmir we find the number of concrete poles and plant protection cages more than the number of plants and trees grown their. Anyone who wants to get the practical meaning of the phrase to burn the candle at both ends must watch the lavish style of working of the forest department of the poor Jammu and Kashmir state where the money is spent mercilessly under the pretext of giving a green cover to the planet, arresting the depletion of the ozone layer, saving the environment and ecology from pollution and making it conducive for the sustenance of life on the earth. The department poses as if it is committed to bring about a revolution in the growth of the forests. As visible on the ground, the main emphasis of the forest department is to provide ample opportunities of minting money to the blue eyed suppliers and factory owners manufacturing the concrete poles and the plant protection cages to meet the requirements of the forest department. The extravagance of the department aimed at killing two birds with one stone. Firstly enabling the kin and the blue eyed to feather their nests by supplying the truck loads of concrete poles, costly plant protection metallic cages and the barbet wires manufactured in their factories under the patronage of the department. Secondly, on the self aggrandizement through thousands of jumbo sized hoardings portraying the Hon'ble Forest Minister, with prize, ' State of States' awarded by India Today and Arun Jaitlay Hon'ble union Finance Minister. According to an estimate the cost incurred on these biographical hoardings displayed in the nook and corner of the state cost tens of crores rupees to the state coffer.
No doubt the forests have countless benefits for the mankind. They are the saviors of life on the planet. The forests are the green gold and lungs of the living organisms. They are the deciding factors of weather of a place. Forests are the rich source of oxygen meant for the sustenance of life. They control floods, increase water table arrest landslide and soil erosion. Forests play a great role in the economy of any country. It is the moral and constitutional duty of every citizens and the government to save them from destruction and damage with the little resources available with them. Preservation and a forestation have become more covetous Endeavour of the forest department than making it the campaign of the masses.
Jammu and Kashmir is a poor state ranked number one in corruption in the country and number two among the states getting maximum central assistance with zero contribution to the national exchequer. The state is already reeling under the problems like rehabilitation of POK refugees, Kashmiri migrants, Un employment, the scarcity of the power, drinking water, connectivity, health care and education. The state coffers are too little to pay the salaries to its employees, daily wagers, contractual and need based workers and four DA installments to state employees. The losses rendered by the 2014 kashmir floods are to be made good. Due to the scarcity of the funds and the militancy the whole development of the state has come to a standstill. The state government has to reconstruct the schools, hospital and the buildings torched by the militants in the Srinagar. But the lavish style of the forest department of the state in the task of a forestation , protection of the forests, preservation of the environment and ecology, surpasses the richest countries of the world like USA and Europe. The exhibition of the un necessary concrete poles, plant protection metallic cages, barbet wires pitched on either sides of the highways, roads in the cities as well as in the interior of the state reveals as if the whole state budget has been diverted to the state forest department only. There is hardly a two feet space left between the black top area of the road and the poles as well as the cages with the result one cannot park his vehicle down the black top or steer the vehicle down the road in the event of head to head collision, changing the tires or checking any fault in the engine. In order to consume large number of the poles cages and barbet wire, large area of the arid lands and the naked tops of the cliffs, have been brought under the ambit of the plan and encircled by the countless poles and the metalic cages.
The amount incurred on the display of the jumbo sized biographic hoardings and the flexes have got no relevance with the campaign which is a sheer wastage of crores of rupees of the state exchequer. Very little or in many cases no plants have been seen grown inside the enclosures and the cages standing alongside the roads and hills. According to the rough estimates thousands of crores of the rupees has been spent on the non productive items and articles only to render benefit to the blue eyed and kin manufacturing and supplying the concrete poles barbet wires and the metallic cages. Where on the one hand the forest department is proving a lactating cow and on the other the same department is putting clog in the way of development of the hilly tehsils of Basohli, Bni and Bhaderwah by stalling the work of the GREF in many parts of the state where the work on the most important highways is taking place on the war foottings . The sleuths of the department, under the garb of retrieving the forest land from the encroachers, have evicted many nomads and the poor natives from their few sq. yards possession of land which they have been occupying since decades whereas the influential persons with political clout and access in the power circles are still occupying big junks of the the forest land with impunity. The department has seized and closed many stone crushers run by the ordinary citizens whereas those owned or in partnership by the kins are in operation brazenly.
The people are heard whispering that with the amount spent by the forest department of the Jammu and Kashmir state on a forestation could convert the whole desert into greenery. The wise people say that WE MUST CUT OUR COAT ACCORDING TO THE CLOTH. The poor state cannot afford extravaganza only to propagate and project the image of those in the helm of the forest department |
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