Manipur Forest department taking action against encroachment in reserved forests areas

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Feb. 22 (EMN): Manipur has just one forest guard per 24sq km as against three forest guards per 24 sq km in other states.

The Manipur minister for Environment and Forests, Awangbou Newmai disclosed this while responding to a calling attention motion by opposition congress MLA Kh Joykishan during the last day of the ongoing assembly on Monday.

Minister Awangbou also mentioned that there is a plan to provide forest guards with single barrel guns for effective functioning. He said the Forest department is taking action on the reported encroachment and excavation of earth from the Chingkhei Ching Reserved Forests Areas.

Drawing the attention of the House, he clarified that the Forest officials have arrested people involved in the illegal digging and collected fines amounting to INR 1,18,630 from the arrested people for the period between September 2020 to January 2021.The department is working despite facing lots of pressure and hardships due to lack of manpower of staff.

Earlier Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh informed the House that there are no cinema halls in Manipur with digital cinema projector. However, the auditorium of the Manipur State Film Development Society (MSFDS) has a digital cinema projector for film promotional activities.

The government is seriously considering the Cine policy and looking into the memorandum submitted by the 4 film groups of Manipur. The state is trying to revive the film industry of Manipur and trying to implement the memorandum by March of financial year 2021, he also stated.

On the other hand, Consumers Affairs Minister Th Satyabrata Singh, replying to a question raised by MLA AK Mirabai Devi, stated that the price of LPG is fixed at the rate as directed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. He also said that the subsidy is not discontinued. There may be pending since December 2020 but the government is trying to expedite as quickly as possible, he assured.

Meanwhile, Social Welfare and Cooperation Minister O Henry, replying to question raised by MLA K Ranjit Singh, informed that there is plan to upgrade the post of co-operative inspector to the post of Group “B” (Class-II) Gazetted officer like other similar-pay scale inspectors of other departments of the state. The Cooperative Societies department has put up the matter of modifying and updating the recruitment rules (RR) of the post of the inspector of co-operative societies, which will be further examined by the department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (personnel division), he added.