1 month ago
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HYDERABAD: Two days after Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy urged the Centre to fast-track forest permissions for pending projects, Director General of Forests Jitendra Kumar arrived in the city and held a meeting with senior state forest officials on the pending clearances.
According to a news release from the forest department, Kumar, who was briefed about 161 applications for clearances that were pending at the Union ministry of environment and forests, assured quick redressal.
The department said Kumar was sent to Hyderabad after instructions were issued by Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, along with forest minister Konda Surekha and other Cabinet ministers, during their meeting with Yadav earlier this week in Delhi, had briefed him about the forest clearances, and also requested that wildlife protection norms for around 38 other projects be relaxed as these were not big and wildlife mitigation measures were adding huge amounts to the project costs.
Kumar was appraised of all the pending clearances by R.M. Dobriyal, principal chief conservator of forests (head of forest force, HoFF). Of the 161 projects for which faster clearances are being sought, Dobriyal informed Kumar that 12 related to national highway. The release added that Kumar recommended that any issues on this front can be sorted out once all the required information is provided to the Centre, the release said.
Kumar also inquired about implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ ‘Ek Ped Maa ke Naam’ initiative, the release added.
Among those who attended the meeting were additional director general of forests Anjan Kumar Mohanty, PCCF (HoFF) Kerala Ganga Singh, deputy director general (Chennai) Dr V George Jenner, inspector general forests Trinadh Kumar, PCCF wildlife Elusing Meru, PCCF (CAMPA) Dr Suvarna, additional PCCF Sunitha Bhagwath, R&B special secretary Dasari Harichandana, and CCFs Priyanka Varghese and Ramalingam, the release said.
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