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| Encroachment in full swing as leaders prevent officials to act against accused | | Political interference taking toll on forest cover in Rajouri | |  Ajay Sharma
Early Times Report
Rajouri, July 26: Interference from the politicians has caused havoc to the forest cover in this district since they ‘force’ and ‘coerce’ the officers as well as officials of the department not to take action against the people who resort to plunder and loot of the forests.
Early Times has learnt from sources that few politicians call up the officers of the department as and when some person is caught red handed while causing loot to the green gold. They said that in such a situation the department officials are helpless in taking action against forest smugglers and encroachers.
“The department recently retrieved around 25 kanals of forest land from an encroacher in the compartment number 93/D in Sunderbani. As the department started to demarcate the encroached land and started fencing the encroacher arrived on the spot along with the tractor. A politician called the forest department officer asking him not to act against the encroacher since he is the worker of party,” said sources. The sources said that same was witnessed in some other forest areas of the district with the politicians forcing the department officials not to act against the jungle smugglers and forest encroachers. They said if the situation continues like this then the whole forest cover would vanish in this district and that too within no time. “In the compartment numbers 50/D (tehsil Siote) and 86/N (Kila Draal) huge damage has been caused since the fencing as well as poles have been damaged by the forest encroachers. The department had identified the people behind all this and wanted to act against them, but could not do so since they had political affiliation,” said sources.
An officer of the department on the condition of anonymity acknowledged the fact that the politician calls them every now and then and asks them not act against the encroachers since they belong to the party. The department as well as locals have urged Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu to intervene and act in the matter.
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