HMT Forest Land: Notice issued to senior officials

Bengaluru: Minister of Forests, Ecology and Environment Eshwara B Khandre has instructed to issue a notice to the senior forest officers who have defied the rules and applied to the Supreme Court to denotify the forest land of HMT area in Peenya-Jalahalli Plantation without the approval of the Minister and the Cabinet.

In the note given to the Deputy Chief Secretary of the department in this regard, it is clear that after notification as a reserve forest under Section 17 of the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963 in the Karnataka Forest Manual, a decision must be taken in both the Houses of the Legislature if that forest is to be declared as ‘Never a Forest’.

In addition, in the First Schedule of Karnataka Government Activities Management Rules, 1977, it is stated that in case of transfer of government land to any other government department, if its value is more than Rs 5 crores, the prior approval of the Cabinet should be obtained. But some officials have submitted the IA to the Supreme Court by taking the order of the government at their level without even drawing the attention of the minister and without the permission of the cabinet, which is suspicious. Besides, HMT has also issued no-objection letter for allotment of forest land to government and private parties. Because of this HMT. So far, 165 acres of land has been sold for Rs 313,65,52,681 crore to private and government organizations, said Eshwar Khandre.

In the meantime, in 2015, the then APCCF Venkatasubbaiah ordered the 64A process for the clearance of forest land in the HMT area. HMT also did not file an appeal against this order within the prescribed time limit.

Hence it will be the property of the Forest Department. When the situation was like this, some senior forest officers were HMT without obtaining written permission from the then Forest Minister and approval of the Cabinet.

It has been said that the government’s hasty order to denotify the forest land in the area and the submission of an interim application (IA) to the Supreme Court is also a reason for doubt.

In this backdrop, Eshwar Khandre has given a clear instruction to all the officials involved in the case of

denotification of forest land worth thousands of crores of rupees without obtaining the prior approval of

the Minister or the Cabinet of Ministers and to give a notice to all the officials involved in the case, to get a reply within 7 days and to submit a proposal for further action.

Development of HMT similar to Lalbagh

Eshwara Khandre has already clarified that an application has been filed to withdraw the IA filed by the Forest Department in the Supreme Court, and after getting this land to the Forest Department, a botanical garden will be developed here on the model of Lalbagh or Kabban Udyan.