Himachal govt silent on illegal felling of trees, financial irregularities: LoP Thakur

Shimla, Mar 9 (PTI) Leader of the Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur on Monday alleged that several cases of corruption and political patronage have surfaced during the tenure of the Congress government.

Addressing a press conference here, he referred to the illegal felling of trees in the Shillai area of the Sirmaur district and said that permission was granted for cutting only 25 trees, but more than 300 trees were reportedly felled.

Nathuram Chauhan, an environmental activist of the Shillai area, had alleged that a large number of trees were illegally felled in Shillai under political patronage and had demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter.

Thakur alleged that political protection is being extended in the matter and attempts are being made to dilute the investigation. According to him, rules permit only limited felling of trees even on private land, but in this case there has been a blatant violation of the law.

Thakur said if the government has the moral courage, it should take strict action against those responsible. Earlier, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that he had sought a report from the department in this regard.

The leader of the opposition also questioned the functioning of the Chief Minister's Office, alleging that there have been instances where official tour programmes of the chief minister were issued, but subsequently he travelled elsewhere without proper information being communicated to the administration or the public.

Thakur said such conduct raises serious concerns as the chief minister holds the highest constitutional office in the state.

The BJP leader also raised concerns over "financial irregularities" in another project in the state, where alleged discrepancies of around Rs 120 crore have surfaced. He said similar projects of comparable capacity are built in other states at much lower costs, whereas in Himachal Pradesh unusually high expenditure is being reported. However, he did not name the project. PTI BPL MNK MNK