M A I N   N E W S

Walkout in HP Assembly
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, March 10 — The Congress members walked out of the Vidhan Sabha today protesting against the ruling of the Speaker, Thakur Gulab Singh, disallowing a private members’ resolution urging the state government to review its recent decision of felling green trees for commercial purpose.

They said the walkout was also in protest against the attitude of Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal on the significant issue.

The resolution moved by Thakur Kaul Singh (Cong) was disallowed by the Speaker who ruled that the issue could not be discussed in the House as the matter was sub judice and was pending before Supreme Court.

The Congress members led by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Virbhadra Singh, pleaded before the Speaker to allow discussion on the resolution as the matter was of great importance. They also urged the Speaker to review his decision as they claimed that the business advisory committee had already approved the resolution for being discussed in the House.

The Congress members became agitated when Mr Dhumal supported the decision of the Speaker and said we should wait for the final verdict of the apex court.

Mr Kaul Singh accused the government of deliberately trying to scuttle his resolution as it had lifted the ban on green felling which was imposed by the previous Congress government.

Mr Dhumal said the member was trying to mislead the House and the BJP government had only implemented the decision which was taken by the previous Congress regime.

Mr Virbhadra Singh reacted by claiming that the Chief Minister was trying to put the blame for the controversial decision on the Congress. Thereafter, the Congress members staged a walkout from the House.

Following the walkout, Mr Dhumal clarified in the House that his government had not allowed green felling in the state. Only silviculture felling had been allowed for scientific growth of forests and that too with the condition of obtaining prior approval of the working plans from the Centre. The Supreme Court had also ordered that the working plans should be implemented only after approval of the Centre.

He said of the 31 forest areas, working plans for 19 had already been approved by the Centre and five were awaiting permission. Preparation of working plans for other areas was almost complete.

He said the expert opinion was that silviculture was necessary for proper growth of forests. The silviculture felling would be done entirely by the Forest Department and the forest mafia would not be allowed to raise its head in the state.

The Chief Minister said the state government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in response to the court's notice which was issued suo motu on the basis of certain newspaper reports.

Later, in a statement outside the house, Mr Virbhadra Singh said the resolution of Mr Kaul Singh was accepted for discussion and the business advisory committee had unanimously allocated time for the discussion. The meeting of the committee was attended among others by Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.P. Nadda.

He said that the apex court had only stayed the order of the state government and sought clarifications, this, therefore, could be construed as the matter being subjudice, he maintained.

Mr Virbhadra Singh alleged that the government was trying to scuttle discussion on the important matter in the Vidhan Sabha.

Earlier, the issue of illicit felling came up in the House during question hour when Congress members pointed out that timber smugglers had become active in various areas.

In a question tabled jointly by Mr Gangu Ram Musafir, Mrs Vidya Stokes, Mr Singhi Ram and Mr Chander Kumar (all Cong), Forests Minister Roop Singh said that 10,011 cases of illicit felling and timber smuggling were detected during the past three years in the state. Of these 6297 cases were compounded by the Forest Department. As many as 172 cases were prosecuted and only two ended with conviction.

Mrs Stokes said certain influential persons were involved in illicit felling in the DEHA area of Theog subdivision.

Mr Chander Kumar expressed concern over the large number of cases of illicit felling and smuggling of timber having been compounded by the forest department instead of prosecuting the offenders in the court.