Patna, Aug. 28: The state cabinet on Tuesday extended the term of inquiry commission, which is probing the Bhagalpur riot cases of 1989, for another six months.

The cabinet gave its nod to extend the tenure of the commission, which is coming to an end of August 30, for another six months up to February 28, 2013, on existing terms and conditions of the commission, cabinet coordination department principal secretary Ravikant said.

The commission, headed by Justice N.N. Singh, a retired judge of Patna High Court, was set up by the Nitish Kumar government in February 2006 to reinvestigate certain cases of 1989 communal riots that had claimed about 1,000 lives.

A high court bench headed by Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi on Monday directed the home department principal secretary to file an affidavit by October 24 giving details regarding compensation to the Bhagalpur riot victims.

The court passed the direction on a PIL alleging that several riot victims had not been awarded compensation by the state government so far.

The cabinet also gave its nod to the Mukhyamantri Niji Paudhshala Yojana under Hariyali Mission. Under the ambitious afforestation scheme, the government aims to increase the forest/tree coverage area to 15 per cent from current 9.79 per cent in next five years at an estimated expenditure of Rs 229.97 crore, Ravikant said.

Since it is quite difficult for the forest and environment department to take a massive afforestation drive on its own under which 25 crores trees of different types have to be planted in the next five years, he said the government had decided to offer incentive to private nurseries in the state.

The government would give Rs 12 to Rs 14 per plant to the nursery owners who would hand over the saplings to the department, which would bear the cost of carriage, plantation among others, the principal secretary said.