Chhatraraj Timilsaina, Secretary of the Forest Committee, has been arrested on charges of felling the Pachulli Forest in Kamalbazar Municipality-5 by bringing permission for forest production on the basis of documents.
Janak Padhya, Head of Division Forest Office Achham, said that on Monday, the secretary of the committee was arrested after it was reported that a fake document was created in the name of Panchulli Chaitepatal Community Forest Consumer Committee and the permission to sell Chotro (stems, leaves, bark) was obtained from the Forest Division Office Mangalsen based on the same document.
'We also proceeded with the investigation after protesting that forest production permission was obtained by making fake documents. After that, a joint monitoring was also done in the presence of all the stakeholders," Office Head Padhya said, "Based on the letter from our office, he has been kept in the custody of the District Police Office. The process of investigation has progressed. Tomorrow (Tuesday) extension of the investigation will continue
According to the Forest Act-2076, there is a legal provision that cases involving more than 200,000 and imprisonment for more than one year will go to court and other cases will be handled by the Forest Division. "According to the Forest Act-2076, it was found during the preliminary investigation that the action plan was not working and that it was working against the law," he said. . But after the general meeting did not take further action, we have started the investigation. He said that the involvement of other people in obtaining permission for forest production by preparing fake documents is also being investigated.
The documents submitted to obtain permission for forest production were fake and such work was opened by the leadership of Chhatraraj Timilsaina, the secretary of the committee It was the consumers of the forest who protested. Locals said that the people of the Forest Committee are being mislead by creating fake documents and obtaining permission to produce 13,000 kg of Chotra and that there is a license to produce 45,000 kg in the village.
Timal Saina, the secretary of the forest committee, had prepared a document saying that the decision to produce forest was made in the meeting of the consumer committee on February 12. While Chairman of the Forest Committee Jayaprakash Upadhyay said that since he was out of the district for 6 months, there was no meeting of the committee and no general assembly on that date. "The attendance of the meeting held a year ago was prepared as the general assembly on February 12th. I am the chairman of the forest committee. I have been in Kailali for 6 months. "I have also recently come to know that I have prepared documents and obtained consent for forest harvesting," he said.
