THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a decision that could have major legal and administrative ramifications across India, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) has granted divisional forest officers (DFOs) the power to penalise officials, including government staff, for violating the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
As per the notification recently issued by the Centre, DFOs can take action on the basis of information received on offences committed by state government authorities and file a complaint against the offenders with a court. This applies to government projects as well.
The complaints should be filed within 45 days of the receipt of such communication from the Centre. The notification says a periodic report as may be specified by the Centre from time to time on filing complaints shall be submitted by state government officers.
Till now, there was ambiguity in dealing with legal proceedings against government authorities violating the 1980 Act. DFOs only sent a report about such violations to the chief conservator of forests (protection) about such violations, who then forwarded it to the MoEF’s regional office. The regional office used to take legal action.
Now, if any govt work is carried out in a forest area or any trees are felled without MoEF sanction, the DFO concerned can initiate legal proceedings against the respective state government official. “Officials from different departments enter forest regions for various works. Earlier, if they cut down a tree, or indulged in unauthorised construction we could only report it to higher-ups. Now, we can initiate action,” a DFO told TNIE.
The notification has already sparked apprehensions among government officials. “We usually respond to urgent calls from forest fringe areas,” a PWD official told TNIE. “In an emergency situation, if they are going to penalise us for our intervention, it will be unfortunate,”
he said.