IFS officer suspended for illegal tree felling
Uttarakhand state forest department suspended Indian Forest Service officer AK Gupta for his alleged involvement in illegal felling of pine and sal trees and extraction of resin worth Rs 5.63 crore in Champawat district during his posting as the divisional forest officer from 2010 to 2016. In September 2017, an audio clip of Gupta had gone viral in which he was purportedly speaking about cutting trees for money. The suspension order, signed by principal secretary of Uttrakhand forest department Anand Bardhan said that Gupta will be given 50% of his salary for next 90 days.
Budget session at Gairsain in March
The budget session of Uttarakhand Assembly is likely to be held at Gairsain in Chamoli district from March 2, 2020. Sources said the session is expected to range between five and nine days. The session will commence with the governor’s speech followed by the tabling of the state budget. Later, each department will table its budget individually. The state government had not held a single Assembly session at Gairsain last year. The opposition had raised the issue in the Assembly in the last session. A huge state Assembly complex has been constructed in Gairsain to pacify people and to display the political will of keeping the promise alive. Making Gairsain the capital of Uttarakhand was one of the promises in BJP’s ‘Mission Document’ in the 2017 state elections.
Soon, free travel for ‘bravehearts’
Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, while chairing a meeting of the state Sainik Board in Dehradun, gave in-principle approval to the proposal of granting free travel facilities to gallantry award winners, their widows as well as those soldiers who were handicapped during war in state transport buses. The CM said that the bravehearts deserved to be respected in any way possible and the state government is committed to honour and support the men in uniform. Rawat also said the government is making efforts to provide jobs to soldiers after retirement.
vineet upadhyay
Our correspondent in Dehradun vineet.upadhyay@newindianexpress.com