BHUBANESWAR: A day after the villagers lodged a strong protest against tree felling at Balarampur in Dhenkanal district to set up a beer bottling plant, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed the district administration to immediately take steps to stop tree cutting. The Chief Minister also directed the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) to investigate into the matter, a release from the office of the Chief Minister said. The directive of the Chief Minister came after the issue was raised by the Opposition BJP in the State Assembly on Saturday.
Opposition political parties, however, described the RDC probe ordered by the Chief Minister as a cover-up, done under pressure. The leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Narasingh Mishra questioned the justification behind ordering a probe into the incident. “Why the Chief Minister ordered a probe when there is evidence of tree felling? He should have instead asked the police to take action. It seems the Chief Minister was forced to take the decision,” Mishra said.
Alleging that the RDC probe is an attempt to cover up the incident, leader of the BJP Legislature Party KV Singhdeo said the administration wanted to forcibly clear all trees before the hearing of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over the issue on November 20. He said an independent agency should probe why and how no-objection certificate (NOC) was given to the beer plant project as the RDC is a party to the decision. Singhdeo said Excise Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera has justified tree felling by talking about compensatory afforestation.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Assembly on Saturday, Singhdeo had said, on the one hand, the State Government has decided to plant trees alongside the riverbanks, on the other hand, it has ordered to cut more than 20,000 valuable trees from Jhinkargadi forest. “This speaks of the double standards of the State Government,” he said.
Responding to Singhdeo, Finance and Excise Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said the State Government will plant double the number of trees that have been felled in the forest. Stating that IDCO has allotted the land to the beer manufacturing company, he said there are some portions of the land of the Revenue department near the village where 600-700 saplings would be planted.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the said project through video conferencing on November 3. However, the construction work of the project scheduled to begin on November 8 was stopped due to the protest by the villagers.
Villagers demand project to be shelved
They have demanded to withdraw 62 acres of land allotted to IDCO for setting up various industries in the area, pay compensation for felling trees and plant saplings in large number. Environment activist Prafulla Samantray said there was no urgent need to cut down hundreds of trees when the National Green Tribunal had scheduled to hear the petition filed by the villagers in this regard on November 20. Besides, the villagers had never given consent at a village meeting for a beer bottling plant, he added.