Rupesh Samant

Panaji, Aug 26: Goa government in a notification issued last week constituted a three-member-committee to review the findings of high level committee on private forest lands in the state.

Goa government’s action comes after National Green Tribunal (NGT) this month had fined them (government) for Rs 10,000 per day from July onwards till they submit the report on private forest lands.

The notification which was issued on Saturday by Under Secretary (Forest) Shaila Bhosle notified the three-member-panel which will have to review the findings of Karapurkar-Sawant committee and submit its report within three months on exact quantum of private forest land existing in the state.

Interestingly, this is the second review committee which is formed by the state government as in April last year. They had constituted a similar committee which had reviewed Karapurkar-Sawant report identifying 42.12 square kilometer of land in Goa as private forest.

Pramod Sawant-led government had rejected this report last year claiming that “aggrieved people were not heard by the review committee.”

"The committee has been constituted to finalize the report on private forests submitted by the review committee, after considering the objections of affected parties whose properties are going to be identified as private forests," Bhosle said in the notification.

She said that the committee should consider the objections of affected parties and submit the report before the time limit prescribed by NGT.

NGT, through its recent order dated August 8, imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 per day from July 1 onwards till the time the government submitte its report. NGT has allowed final extension of three months for submission of the report, subject to deposit of a performance guarantee of Rs one crore to the satisfaction of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).