Bhopal, June 18: A day after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced that the Centre has given a No Objection Certificate to Madhya Pradesh government for turning forest villages into revenue villages, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh said today the clearance was yet to be issued. "The Centre on a number of occasions had written to the state government explaining that its permission for it is a must under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Government of India is yet to issue a no-objection in this regard", an official release quoting Singh said here.
Vajpayee had said at Mandla yesterday that the state governments should issue notifications for converting forest villages into revenue ones.
The state government has been making constant efforts and taking up the issue with the Centre for converting forest villages into revenue villages, Singh said.
The Centre had earlier given conditional permission for converting 100 forest villages into revenue ones on conditions like compensatory forestation, Singh said, adding, these conditions were impractical and so could not be adhered to.
Singh said he personally met Union Forest and Environment Minister twice on the issue and the matter was also taken up with Director General of forests during his recent visit to the state.
Bureau Report