RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Dec.24: Congress legislator Shilpi Neha Tirkey today questioned the commitment of the state government taking safety of forest land and collection of revenue through legitimate means.
The development took place a day after she drew attention to inconsistencies in the way she was given the opportunity to respond and to debate a topic of public significance in the house.
She said that she had raised two issues of public importance but hadn’t received a proper response from the government or the chance to ask follow-up questions.
Tirkey, a representative for the Mandar Assembly constituency and the daughter of firebrand tribal leader Bandhu Tirkey, stressed upon the need of thorough investigation and taking appropriate action.
She claimed that after raising a complaint over the sale and purchase of forest land in Barhi, she was contacted by Barhi circle officer Arvind Devashish Toppo to put an end to the situation rather than receiving a meaningful response from the government or having the chance to ask the relevant minister follow-up questions.
Asked about the response in the matter of forest land of Barhi, she said the government in reply to the question relating to sale of forest land just said the deputy commissioner of Hazaribagh district has been asked about the same.
She claimed that her other query concerned the potential financial loss of giving out Jharkhand maps to strangers. She claimed that a map of the entire state of Jharkhand was transferred from Bihar as part of the state’s reorganisation, and that it was safely stored in settlement offices, from whence it was anticipated that it would be distributed to those in need at a cost of Rs 200 per copy.
She claimed that somehow, nonetheless, the maps made it to the Xerox store on the court campus, where they are now being distributed to people for Rs 100 per copy. This has not only given opportunity of revenue loss but also given scope of malpractices as through Xerox shops map could reach to wrong persons also without any verification of his identity.
Asked about the government’s reply in the matter, she said that the government simply denied the fact though it was expected from it to let the house aware of the revenue collected by selling a copy of the map.
