‘Eight cement companies are located in forest land’
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Even as the State Government has formed a joint investigation committee to look into alleged encroachment of forest land by eight cement companies in Jaintia Hills, the Comptroller and Auditor General (GAG) has asserted that the Government’s lack of will to keep their (cement cos) operations in abeyance till the Net Present Value (NPV) is recovered has led to a revenue loss of Rs 43.45 crore.
The CAG in its annual report (for the year ended on March 31, 2011) said the failure of the State government to strictly enforce the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 by allowing cement factories to set up shops in the State without approval of the Central government created this problem.
It is further compounded by the lack of will to keep operations of cement companies in abeyance till the Net Present Value (NPV) was recovered, report said.
While stating that eight cement companies were setup without any forest clearance, the CAG report said these cement companies are located well inside forest areas.
The CAG report pointed out that taking the minimum NPV rate of Rs 6.57 lakh per hectare, the total NPV recoverable from the eight cement factories would have been Rs 43.45 crore.
According to report, Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 mandates that proposal for diversion of forestland for any non-forest purpose would require prior approval of the Central Government.
The CAG report stated that officials of the North Eastern Regional Office(NERO), Ministry of Forest and Environment(MOEF), Shillong had visited cement plants in May and June 2010 and found that eight cement factories in the district did not obtain the prior approval of the Central government.
“In the inspection of the NERO it was revealed that most of the certificates issued by authorities at different levels did not have a complete description of the land involved and not a single project had got forest clearance although they were located well inside forest areas,” the report added.
The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) in a letter addressed to Chief Secretaries of all States/Union Territories in 2007 had stated that the matter of non compliance of the order of Supreme Court of had been viewed seriously and directed that in cases where NPV has not been recovered from the user agencies, their operations should be kept in abeyance.