After the objection of the Union Forest and Environment Ministry, the government will send the proposal for transfer of forest land afresh.
Haldwani. The proposed High Court at Gaulapar in Haldwani of Nainital district will now be built on 20.08 hectares of land. After the objection of the Union Forest and Environment Ministry, the government has decided to send a fresh proposal for transfer of forest land. The nodal officer appointed for this project, Secretary, PWD, Pankaj Kumar Pandey, after resolving all the objections of the Ministry, has given instructions to upload the land transfer proposal in the environment portal by May 10.
Let us tell you that at the time of formation of Uttarakhand, the High Court was established in Nainital in the year 2000. In view of the expansion of the court, increasing number of advocates and increasing pressure on the tourist destination, consideration was being given to shifting the High Court. The state cabinet had identified 26.08 hectares of forest land in Gaulapar for shifting the High Court. After making a concept layout plan on this land, the proposal for transfer of land was sent to the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment. But the Ministry’s Regional Empowered Committee (REC) raised objections to this proposal. Due to this, clouds of doubt started hovering over the entire project.
During this, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of the High Court. In the meeting, it was informed by PWD that action regarding digital mapping, geo reference map, calculation of project value (NPV) and compensatory plantation has been started in relation to the project. After this, an important meeting was held recently under the chairmanship of Secretary PWD. It was decided in the meeting that instead of the earlier selected land of 26.08 hectares, now the process of transfer of 20.08 hectares of forest land will start. The Justice Department will issue its mandate. In the meeting, Secretary PWD instructed the Chief Engineer that this proposal is very important and of top priority, hence work on it should be done in time bound manner. In this regard, District Magistrate Nainital and other concerned officers were instructed to work in coordination.
