Panel admits it was wrong to grant licences to 50 sawmills

Nagpur: A state-level committee (SLC) headed by PCCF (HoFF) N Rambabu on Thursday admitted that the decision to grant additional horizontal band saws (AHBS) licences to 50 timber units was wrong, but did not take any call on cancelling these permits.
The SLC headed by former PCCF Umesh Agrawal had on July 23, 2018, granted AHBS to 50 units. This was in addition to existing cutting machines with these mills. This was in violation of the apex court order of March 4, 1997, as well as against Maharashtra Forest Rules (MFR) 2014.
The latest SLC meeting was called on Thursday to take a decision to scrap the licences, but all the members remained silent though they admitted that the earlier decision was in contravention to rules.
Though the forest department has put the issue on the back burner, environment lawyer Manish Jeswani filed an application on August 21 before MoEFCC regional office for quashing the order passed by the SLC. The state has also been made a party and hence it has sought a reply from the PCCF in a week. The MoEFCC has to resolve the appeal in 60 days.
Those who attended Thursday’s meeting included PCCF N Rambabu, APCCF (Protection) Sanjeev Gaur, CCF (Forest Regulation) SS Dahiwale, CCF (T) Nagpur P Kalyan Kumar and others.
“The matter is sub judice and hence it is not proper to speak anything on the issue at this juncture. But, we will go by the facts and bring them on record. Finally, MoEFCC has to decide on the appeal and then SLC will take a final call,” said Rambabu.
In his petition, Jeswani argued there is serious violation of Supreme Court order in (writ petition 202/1995) which states: “All unlicensed saw mills, veneer, and plywood industries in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are to be closed forthwith and the state governments would not remove or relax the condition for grant of permission/licence for the opening of any such industry and it shall also not grant any fresh licence for this purpose.”
Learning that SLC committed a mistake by granting licences, on February 28, 2019, then PCCF Agrawal sought to amend Maharashtra Forest Rules in order to regularize the ‘illegal’ licences for 50 additional 42 inches horizontal band saws, but the government rejected the demand and asked Agrawal to review the decision.
The petition says that SLC meeting held on June 27, 2017, had decided that grant of additional band saws shall be considered only after the timber availability report is received from the state. However, SLC took a decision to issue licences on July 23, 2018, without waiting for the reports.
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SLC headed by former PCCF Umesh Agrawal had on July 23, 2018 granted AHBS to 50 units
This was in violation of apex court order of March 4, 1997, Maharashtra Forest Rules 2014
Lawyer Manish Jeswani filed application on August 21 before MoEFCC for quashing order by SLC
Petition says SLC issued licences without waiting for timber availability report