STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The Forest Department on Saturday dismantled an illegal saw mill in Bishnah Tehsil besides seizure of two saw mills machineries at Bari Brahmana.
The department conducted surprise checking of saw mills in Bishnah and Bari Brahmana areas in which one illegal saw mill operated by Kuldeep Raj, son of Bama Ram, resident of Chak Qadra Tehsil Bishnah was dismantled and two saw mill machineries from Malik Saw Mill Bari Brahmana near Peer Baba was seized by a team of forest officials of Jammu Forest Division led by Vinod Sharma, Range Officer Bahu Range, and Forest Field Staff.
The whole operation was carried out on the directions of Dr. Arashdeep Singh, Divisional Forest Officer Jammu. The information was received from locals that some person are without valid licence operated saw mills. Hence, the Divisional Forest Officer directed for immediate checking and it was found that saw mill was functioning against the violation of SRO 103 of 2012 Saw Mills Rules. The saw mill was functioning at the time of raid and accordingly was dismantled.
There were some resistance from the owners of the illegal saw mill but the situation was handled with the help of Forest Protection Force.
The Forest Offence Report was registered against owners of the illegal saw mill for violation of SRO 103 and under various Sections of J&K Forest Act.
The Range Officer Bahu has been directed to file the case before the Authorised Officer for initiating of confiscation proceeding under Section 26 of J&K Forest Act. Naveen Shah, Conservator of Forests East Circle Jammu supervised the whole operation and appreciated the efforts of field staff and appealed to the saw mill owners to adhere the existing regularisation and SRO 103 of 2012. Further, he added that the said operation will continue in other areas also.
