Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 4: The Central government approved the diversion of forest land for infrastructure-related projects in 14 categories in 2020-2021 for quick development in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or Naxal-affected states.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change gave its permission, citing the Ministry of Home Affairs’ recently released annual report 2020-2021.
“Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has given general approval for diversion of forest land for infrastructure-related projects in 14 categories relating to schools, dispensaries, hospitals, electrical and telecommunication lines, drinking water projects, water and rain harvesting structures, minor irrigation canals, non-conventional sources of energy, skill upgradation and vocational training centre as well as rural roads,” the report said.
In accordance with section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the general approval was previously for the diversion of up to five hectares of forest land, which has been expanded to 40 hectares for LWE regions, with validity until December 31, 2020.
According to the report, the Indian government has been implementing the Road Requirement Plan (RRP-I) since February 26, 2009, to improve road connectivity in 34 LWE-affected districts across eight states, including Andhra Pradesh (now Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh.
The programme, it added, calls for the construction of 5,362 kilometres of roads and eight vital bridges at a cost of Rs 78,673 crore. Interestingly, the report also stated that a total of 4,981 km of highways and six major bridges have been built as of March 31, 2021.
