Correspondence to the union and state government by all the seven municipal heads of the district, including the district coordination chief
All the seven municipal heads of the district along with the district coordination chief have written to the union and the state government to take action against the head of the division forest office of West Nawalparasi for not cooperating with the extraction process of river materials.
Jeevan Pangeni, the head of the Division Forest Office, has been requested to take action for delaying the opening of the contract for river-borne materials in the river channel in Chure area after he attended the meeting of the district monitoring committee but did not sign the minutes.
'Earlier, for years, extraction of river materials was taking place with the permission of the Chure Committee . When the demand for raw materials is high for government projects and at the local level, we have written a letter for action after coming to the meeting but not signing,'' District Coordination Committee chief Bhagauti Yadav 'Rudal' said, 'Due to the forest staff, revenue collection at the local level has been affected and there has been a shortage of river materials even in the work of development construction . We have sent a letter to the ministry after calling for coordination and not responding.' President Chure-Tarai Madhesh Conservation Development Committee's recommendation of the District Monitoring Committee is required for excavation in rivers and streams. The committee has arrangements to have representative members such as coordination chief, municipal chief, chief district officer, revenue, forest office and others. A dispute arose between the forest office and the district coordination committee after Chure did not give permission without the recommendation of all the members. Although all the members of the committee have signed, the work has been stopped after the representative of the forest office did not sign. After the forest office did not agree, the contract for Visasay, Valuhi Turia River of Sunwal Municipality in Chure area has not been executed. After the forest office agreed, the Chure committee did not give permission for the excavation, and the dispute became more heated.
District Coordination Committee has sent a letter to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Public Administration and Lumbini Province Chief Minister's Office for action, but no action has been taken by the Ministry.
Division Forest Office Chief Jeevan Pangeni responded by going against the rules and procedures and leaving without signing instead of arguing with the people's representatives. He says that the people's representatives have attacked him for holding the opinion that the local level does not have rights in the forest area.
People's representatives of the local government have also drawn the attention of the state and the federal government that the state government agencies should not play an interventionist role against the laws of the federal government because the forest office creates obstacles in the collection and management of river products in their jurisdiction.
